mmmmmmm 


74 

M43  M35 


.AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  CELEBRATION 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 


OF  THE  INCORPORATION  of  the 


TOWN  OF  MATTAPOISETT 


MASSACHUSETTS 


AUGUST   18-24,   1907 


NEW  BEDFORD,    MASS.: 

E.  Anthony  &  Sons,  Inc.,  Printbbs. 
1908. 


Copyright  1908 

By   IRVING   NILES   TILDEN 

Chairman  Committee  on  Publication 

Mattapoisett,  Mass. 


Five  Hundred  Copies  of  this  Book  have  been  printed,  of  which 
one  has  been  sent  to  each  person  who  contributed  to  the  fund  for  the 
celebration.     The  remainder  will  be  for  sale  at  twenty-five  cents  each. 


F 

■74- 

PREFACE 


Fifty  years  ago  a  Mattapoisett  home  would  have  been 
incomplete,  its  mistress  lacking  in  taste  and  sensibility, 
if  the  parlor  table  had  not  been  ornamented  with  vari- 
ous "Tokens,"  "Keepsakes"  or  "Souvenirs" — little 
volumes  bound  in  black  and  gold,  containing  gems  of 
prose  and  verse,  illustrated  by  steel  engravings  of 
Venetian  or  other  foreign  scenes,  fair  ladies  and  brave 
men,  the  latter  generally  in  the  characters  of  High- 
landers, Giaours  or  Pirates. 

These  are  now  banished  to  the  top  shelf  of  the  book- 
case, or  packed  away  in  the  attic,  among  other  old 
book  friends ;  too  shabby  for  association  with  the  newest 
novel  in  its  gay  binding  and  Christy  girl  frontispiece, 
too  dear  to  throw  away.  Too  dear,  it  may  be,  because 
of  the  delicate  slanting  writing  on  the  fly  leaf,  bearing 
the  owner's  and  the  donor's  names. 

In  the  year  which  has  just  passed,  we  have  very  much 
enjoyed  observing  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  incor- 
poration of  our  town  and  reading  its  past  history; 
and  on  many  social  occasions  or  casual  meetings  there 
has  been  much  reminiscent  talk.  The  quaint  old  town 
characters  have  been  recalled,  their  witty  sajdngs, 
practical  jokes  and  doggerel  rhymes  repeated ;  and  more 
than  once  has  some  one  wished  that  we  could  have 
pictures  of  the  village  as  it  looked  fifty  years  ago,  and 
more  memorials  of  the  past  village  life. 

Fifty  years  from  now  we  trust  the  IMattapoisett 
people  will  want  to  observe  their  centennial;  and  they 


will  be  just  as  curious  about  our  celebration  and  our 
times  as  we  are  about  those  of  fifty  years  ago.  For 
their  benefit,  as  well  as  to  hold  the  passing  interest  in 
the  Anniversary  a  little  longer,  we  have  revived  the 
old  fashion  of  presenting  to  our  friends  a  ' '  Souvenir, ' ' 
made  up  of  pictures,  prose  and  verse,  which,  though 
it  does  not  aspire  to  the  literary  and  artistic  elegance 
of  the  old  ones,  may  yet  have  some  value  as  a  keepsake 
now,  and  arouse  some  interest  in  the  future. 

Irving  N,  Tilden,  M.  D. 
Mary  F.  Briggs 
Gertrude  W.  Dexter 

Committee. 


THE   CELEBRATION 

It  has  been  said  concerning  birthdays  and  anniver- 
saries, that  it  is  pleasant  to  find  flowers  on  the  mile- 
stones as  we  pass  along.  The  year  1907  was  a  milestone 
upon  which  flowers  were  scattered — flowers  of  rhetoric 
at  least. 

The  Exposition  at  Jamestown,  Va.,  the  laying  of  the 
corner  stone  of  the  Cape  Cod  Pilgrim  Memorial  Monu- 
ment, the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the 
Atlantic  Monthly,  were  all  occasions  for  many  speeches 
and  printed  articles,  commemorating  beginnings  in  our 
history  and  letters,  and  eulogizing  the  influences  which 
have  flowed  from  them.  While  Mattapoisett,  with  the 
rest  of  the  world,  was  interested  in  these  observances, 
she  had  a  few  wreaths  to  twine  around  the  milestone 
of  1907  in  honor  of  her  own  fiftieth  birthday. 

It  has  been  within  recent  j^ears  the  fashion — and  a 
most  charming  one — for  country  towns  to  make  a 
holiday  fete  in  the  summer,  called  Old  Home  Week, 
which  all  exiled  children,  who  have  "wandered  like 
truants  for  riches  or  fame,"  are  invited  home  to  enjoy. 
Such  a  fete  and  reunion  was  desired  in  Mattapoisett, 
and  the  suggestion  was  first  made  by  Mr.  Lemuel 
LeBaron  Dexter  at  one  of  the  Improvement  Associa- 
tion meetings,  that  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  in- 
corporation of  the  town  be  observed  in  that  way.  The 
idea  met  with  much  favor  and  was  frequently  discussed. 

At  length  the  time  arrived  to  bring  it  before  the  pub- 
lic town  meeting,  in  order,  according  to  the  old  phrase — ■ 


6  MATTAPOISETT 

"to  get  the  town's  mind,"  also  a  necessary  appropria- 
tion of  money.  Now,  "the  town's  mind,"  as  mani- 
fested in  town  meeting,  might  sometimes  be  more 
correctly  expressed  as  a  small  portion  of  the  town's 
whim;  and  whenever  there  is  a  measure  of  particular 
interest  to  non-voters,  there  is  usually  some  anxiety  as 
to  its  reception  and  fate. 

In  the  warrant  calling  a  special  town  meeting, 
August  4,  1906,  to  consider  principally  the  advisability 
of  using  the  Barstow  School  funds  for  transporting 
High  School  pupils  to  Fairhaven,  the  following  article 
was  inserted :  "To  see  what  action  the  town  will  take 
in  regard  to  celebrating  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  its 
incorporation  as  a  town."  At  this  meeting  the  motion 
was  made  that  the  town  should  celebrate  the  anniver- 
sary, and  was  carried  by  the  vote  of  one  man,  Mr. 
Charles  S.  Mendell;  there  was  no  opposition.  This 
singular  indifference  can  be  explained  only  by  the  infer- 
ence that  the  "town's  mind"  was  greatly  preoccupied 
by  other  business. 

Another  vote  was  taken  instructing  the  moderator, 
Mr.  J.  E.  Norton  Shaw,  to  appoint  a  committee  of  five 
to  consider  the  matter — and  the  manner — of  observing 
the  anniversary  and  report  at  the  next  regular  town 
meeting,  February,  1907.  The  committee  chosen  were : 
Mr.  Charles  S.  Mendell,  Mr.  Charles  S.  Hamlin,  Judge 
Lemuel  LeBaron  Holmes,  Mr.  Isaiah  P.  Atsatt,  Mr. 
Dennis  Mahoney,  and  by  invitation  of  these,  the  number 
was  increased  to  eleven.  Others  were  afterwards 
chosen  to  assist  on  sub-committees. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  original  committee  was  held 
October  27,  1906.  It  was  desired  to  make  the  anniver- 
sary the  chief  significance  of  the  celebration,  and  to 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  7 

work  for  the  inspiring  of  interest  in  the  past  and 
endeavor  for  the  future,  as  well  as  for  a  general  good 
time  and  reunion  of  old  friends.  To  that  end  one  of 
the  first  acts,  at  the  suggestion  of  Judge  Holmes,  was  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  to-compile  a  history  of  the 
town.  They  secured  the  services  of  Miss  Mary  Hall 
Leonard  of  Rochester,  who  very  ably  wrote  the  early 
histor}^  of  the  town  (which  history  IMattapoisett  in- 
herits), and  of  others  who  added  chapters  especially 
relating  to  Mattapoisett. 

Although  hurriedly  gotten  together,  the  book  was 
completed  in  time  to  be  on  sale  in  August,  1907 — the 
month  chosen  for  the  celebration  on  account  of  its  being 
the  usual  holiday  season  for  the  expected  visitors. 

As  usual  in  any  undertaking  the  great  first  need  was 
money.  The  committee  made  their  report  at  the  Feb- 
ruary town  meeting  and  asked  for  an  appropriation  of 
$500.  This  was  granted  heartily.  A  sub-committee 
on  Finance  was  appointed  who  sent  out  requests  to  the 
people  of  the  town,  former  residents  and  those  inter- 
ested in  her  welfare,  to  give  according  to  their  ability. 
The  response  to  these  letters  was  extremely  generous, 
especially  on  the  part  of  those  who  spend  only  their 
summer  season  in  town.  In  all  over  $2200  was  ob- 
tained by  this  means  alone.  This  sum  with  that  ap- 
propriated by  the  town  gave  the  committee  a  sense  of 
freedom  and  enabled  them  to  carry  out  their  plans  in 
the  best  way.  A  Committee  on  Invitation  was  chosen 
who  sent  to  272  persons  in  town  a  request  for  the 
names  and  addresses  of  former  residents.  In  response 
to  this  request,  the  committee  received  540  names  and 
addresses  covering  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  Eng- 
land and  Australia  also  included.     Under  date  of  July 


8  MATTAPOISETT 

23  the  following  invitation  was  sent  to  these  addresses : 

"The  town  of  Mattapoisett  most  cordially  invites  you 
to  attend  the  observance  of  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  its 
incorporation  as  a  town,  which  will  take  place  August  20th, 
1907. 

To  all  sons  and  daughters  of  the  old  town,  either  by 
birth,  descent  or  adoption,  and  their  families,  a  general  in- 
vitation to  be  present  is  extended. 

Come  and  see  how  Mattapoisett  has  progressed,  visit 
your  old  home  and  scenes  of  bygone  days,  and  help  us  to 
make  our  celebration  an  occasion  long  to  be  remembered. 

If  you  are  in  doubt  about  being  entertained,  write  to  Dr. 
Irving  N.  Tilden,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Hospitali- 
ty, who  will  arrange  for  quarters  for  you. 

Sincerely, 
Committee  on  Invitation." 

The  Hospitality  Committee  had  their  headquarters 
in  the  Public  Library.  Their  duties  were  to  provide 
board  and  lodging  for  visitors  and  the  town  was  can- 
vassed for  the  purpose  in  advance.  It  was  difficult  to 
secure  accommodations,  as  in  nearly  every  household 
as  many  guests  were  expected  as  could  be  entertained. 
Because  of  this  fact  doubtless,  there  were  but  few 
applicants  and  those  were  easily  provided  for. 

The  ladies  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  sold  sandwiches  and 
lemonade  to  transient  visitors  from  a  tent  east  of  Pur- 
rington  Hall. 

A  town  celebration  with  no  decorations  would  be 
like  a  mince  pie  without  plums.  Be  sure  the  plums 
were  not  omitted  from  this  pie.  Much  credit  is  due 
the  Decorating  Committee  for  their  tasteful  work.  All 
the  public  buildings,  the  stores  and  many  of  the  private 
residences  were  gay  with  bunting.  Church  Street  was 
particularly  attractive.     The    trolley    poles    and   wire 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  9 

usually  so  ugly,  were  made  to  serve  a  decorative  pur- 
pose by  holding  arches  of  bunting.  The  most  charm- 
ing feature  of  the  decorations  was  the  Grand  Arch 
erected  in  the  main  street  of  the  village,  just  west  of 
Barstow  Street.  By  day  its  excellent  proportions  and 
artistic  color  combinations  made  it  most  pleasing,  while 
at  night  brilliantly  lighted  by  electricity,  it  became  the 
cehtre  of  attraction.  Surmounting  the  arch  were  two 
sketches  of  a  whaler,  on  one  face  under  full  sail,  on 
the  other  under  bare  poles.  These  sketches  were  made 
by  Mrs.  Francis  E.  Bacon  after  an  unsuccessful  search 
through  all  this  region  for  a  model  of  a  whaler  of  the 
right  dimensions  for  the  place. 

The  town  is  indebted  to  Mrs.  Bacon  also  for  her 
artistic  work  in  preparing  the  town  sign  which  still 
remains  at  the  corner  of  Church  and  i\Iain  Streets. 
This  is  the  picture  of  the  w^elcoming  Indian  which  may 
be  seen  on  the  cover  of  this  book. 

The  Publicity  Committee  advertised  the  celebration 
through  the  Press,  and  the  other  committees  had  charge 
of  the  various  features  of  the  entertainment  programme. 

The  observance  began  Sunday  afternoon,  August  18, 
with  a  service  at  the  Congregational  Church  at  which 
all  the  clergymen  in  the  town  assisted.  The  sermon 
was  given  by  the  Rev.  "William  H.  Cobb,  D.  D.,  Libra- 
rian at  the  Congregational  House,  Boston,  who  is  one 
of  Old  Rochester's  sons  by  birth  and  ancestry,  both  his 
father  and  grandfather  having  been  ministers  at  Sippi- 
can. 

The  following  day  was  a  busy  one  of  preparation 
for  the  coming  festivities  and  the  home  entertainment 
of  guests,  many  of  whom  arrived  then. 

On  the  morning  of  Tuesday  the  20th,  the  people  again 


10  MATTAPOISETT 

met  in  the  Congregational  Cliurch,  which  under  the  di- 
rection of  Mr.  I.  P.  Atsatt  had  been  decorated  with  flags 
and  bunting,  potted  hydrangeas  and  bouquets  of 
flowers. 

The  Hon.  Charles  S.  Hamlin  gave  the  first  address, 
welcoming  the  home-comers  in  the  name  of  the  com- 
mittee. In  speaking  of  the  recent  death  of  Judge 
Holmes  which  had  thrown  a  shadow  of  sadness  over  the 
observance,  he  voiced  the  regret  of  all  who  knew  of  his 
interest  and  efforts  for  its  success,  that  he  was  not 
spared  to  see  it. 

]Mr.  Hamlin  gave  also  a  warm  tribute  of  praise  to 
the  town  which  was  being  honored — his  adopted  home 
— and  after  a  selection  by  the  orchestra  introduced  the 
"distinguished  son  of  Mattapoisett  who  stands  eminent 
as  a  jurist  among  jurists,"  Judge  John  W.  Hammond. 

In  beginning.  Judge  Hammond  said  that  it  would  be 
pretty  hard  work  to  come  up  to  what  was  expected  of 
him  after  so  complimentary  an  introduction,  but  as  his 
address  was  written  beforehand,  the  people  would  know 
he  wasn't  influenced  by  it.  He  then  read  his  address, 
which  was  greatly  enjoyed  by  the  large  audience  pres- 
ent and  is  printed  in  this  book  for  the  enjoyment  of 
others. 

Judge  Hammond  was  the  son  of  Nathaniel  and  Maria 
Southworth  Hammond,  and  was  born  in  Mattapoisett 
December  16,  1837.  He  was  educated  in  the  schools 
of  his  native  town,  at  Tuft's  College  and  the  Harvard 
Law  School.  He  taught  school,  served  nine  months  in 
the  Civil  "War,  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  at  Cambridge 
in  1866  and  practiced  law  in  Cambridge  and  Boston, 
being  City  Solicitor  of  Cambridge  from'  1873  to  1886. 
In  March,  1886,  he  was  appointed  to  a  seat  upon  the 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  11 

Bench  of  the  Superior  Court  and  later  advanced  to 
the  Supreme  Bench.  He  married  Miss  Clara  Tweed, 
daughter  of  Prof.  Benjamin  Tweed  of  Tuft's  College, 
and  has  lived  in  Cambridge  since  1866. 

The  afternoon  of  Tuesday  was  devoted  to  field  sports 
and  contests  by  the  young  people  on  the  School  grounds. 
These  were  very  creditable  and  gave  amusement  to  a 
large  number  of  enthusiastic  spectators.  In  the  even- 
ing the  houses  were  illuminated  and  the  Mattapoisett 
Band  marched  through  the  streets  and  later  gave  a 
concert  in  front  of  the  Town  Hall,  while  the  Executive 
Committee  held  a  public  reception  within. 

In  arranging  the  programme  of  the  week,  it  was  first 
proposed  to  have  for  a  social  event,  a  banquet  in  the 
Town  Hall  followed  by  speeches.  At  the  request  of 
Judge  Holmes  the  plan  was  given  up,  and  the  reception 
with  simple  refreshments  took  its  place.  This  was 
much  enjoyed  by  the  many  old  friends  who  met  to- 
gether; and  the  kindly  thought  of  Judge  Holmes  that 
such  an  evening  could  be  enjoyed  by  all,  while  a  limited 
number  would  probably  go  to  the  "banquet,"  was  not 
forgotten,  and  his  own  genial  witty  personality  sadly 
missed  by  many  friends. 

Wednesday  morning  all  of  the  children,  and  many 
of  the  older  people,  upon  arising  looked  anxiously  out 
at  the  weather,  for  that  was  the  day  of  the  street  parade, 
and  Mattapoisett  street  parades  are  highly  appreciated. 
The  day  was  fair  and  the  parade  led  by  the  Matta- 
poisett Band  was  quite  the  finest  ever  seen  in  town. 
It  expressed  sentiment  and  patriotism  in  the  floats  con- 
taining the  old  soldiers — whom  Mattapoisett  always 
delights  to  honor — the  pretty  group  of  children  repre- 
senting the  states,   and  the  very  charming  "Ship   of 


12  MATTAPOISETT 

State ' '  with  Uncle  Sam  and  Miss  Columbia  at  the  helm. 
More  sentiment  and  memories  of  bygone  days  were 
inspired  by  the  whale  boat  and  whale — to  many  the 
most  amusing  and  cleverly  designed  of  all.  Fun  and 
humor  were  supplied  by  the  local  hits  and  grotesque 
figures  after  the  style  of  the  usual  Fourth  of  July 
parades,  and  the  carriages,  automobiles  and  business 
wagons  gaily  decked  with  flags  and  flowers  were  very 
attractive  and  showed  the  popularity  and  prosperity 
of  the  town  in  its  present  role  of  seaside  resort. 

After  the  parade  at  noon  an  excellent  clambake 
dinner  was  served  in  a  tent  set  up  for  the  purpose  at 
the  corner  of  Church  and  Barstow  Streets. 

It  has  been  the  custom  of  the  Improvement  Associa- 
tion to  give  each  Summer  a  lawn  party  and  a  concert. 
These  were  included  among  the  attractions  of  the  week, 
but  they  were  in  charge  of  a  committee  appointed  by 
the  Association,  and  the  funds  received  belonged  to  it, 
and  were  not  used  to  defray  anniversary  expenses. 
The  lawn  party,  with  the  various  booths  prettily  deco- 
rated, held  Wednesday  afternoon  and  evening  on 
Mr.  George  A.  Barstow 's  lawn,  was  very  attractive, 
especially  when  lighted  by  electricity  in  the  evening — 
at  this  date  a  charming  novelty  in  Mattapoisett.  Music 
was  furnished  by  Milo  Burke 's  Band  from  Brockton. 

On  Thursday  morning  there  was  a  ball  game  on  the 
School  grounds,  between  the  Bristols  of  Rhode  Island 
and  the  Mattapoisetts,  resulting  in  victory  for  the  latter 
in  a  score  of  8  to  3. 

The  steamboat  excursion  around  the  bay  on  Thurs- 
day afternoon  was  quite  a  social  occasion,  so  many  old 
friends  "visiting"  together  on  board.  There  at  least 
one  could  not  complain  of  changes.     On  the  shore  to 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  13 

be  sure  were  many  new  houses,  but  the  curving  outline 
was  the  same  and  it  faded  away  into  the  same  blue 
shadows,  as  in  the  boyhood  of  some  present  when  they 
sailed  out  of  the  harbor  on  their  first  voj'age  leaving 
not  quite  so  merry  a  party  waving  adieu.  There  were 
the  same  blue  waves  dancing  up  to  meet  the  fleecy 
white  clouds,  the  salt  breeze  with  its  dreamy  influence, 
the  sunset  colors  when  homeward  bound ;  and  all  these 
will  be  left  for  the  excursion  on  the  bay  at  the  next 
semi-centennial  celebration,  although  that  outing  will 
probably  not  be  taken  on  the  Steamboat  "Martha's 
Vineyard." 

At  eight  o'clock  came  the  concert  which  the  Improve- 
ment Association  had  arranged  for,  and  to  the  music 
lovers  this  was  the  climax  of  the  week's  festivities. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Irving  Swan  Brown  of 
Worcester  we  were  fortunate  enough  to  hear  again  Mr. 
Thaddeus  Rich  who  had  delighted  a  Mattapoisett  audi- 
ence the  year  before  with  his  skillful  playing  of  the 
violin.  He  is  a  young  man  widely  known  as  a  violinist 
of  unusual  merit  and  was  for  some  time  concertmeister 
of  the  Philharmonic  Orchestra  of  Philadelphia.  Mr. 
Rich  gave  a  number  of  solos  of  wonderful  beauty  and 
sweetness  and  was  greatly  enjoyed  in  the  two  trios, 
with  Mr.  Carl  Lamson  of  Boston,  at  the  piano,  and  Mr. 
Brown  adding  much  to  the  harmony  with  his  cello. 

Mr.  Theodore  Wood  is  a  deservedly  popular  baritone 
in  New  Bedford  and  Miss  Alice  Mitchell,  a  pleasing 
soprano  in  Providence,  and  both  gave  their  solos  most 
acceptably.  Miss  Alice  G.  Anthony  of  New  Bedford 
accompanied  IMiss  ]\Iitchell  in  her  usual  finished  style. 
The  musical  programme  was  pleasantly  varied  by  j\Irs. 
Daniel  Dulany  Addison  of  Brookline,  who  amused  her 


14  MATTAPOISETT 

audience  with  a  little  comedy — Dr.  Moonshine — in 
which  she  impersonated  the  several  characters  of  the 
story.  All  of  these  gave  their  services  freely  and  there- 
fore are  doubly  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of  all  who  en- 
joyed this  expression  of  their  talent. 

The  connection  of  Mattapoisett  with  her  neighbors 
by  trolley  is  still  something  of  a  novelty,  and  the  route 
which  encircles  all  of  the  old  Rochester  territory 
charming  and  varied  in  scenery.  It  leads  through  town 
and  country,  under  stretches  of  woodland  shade,  gives 
fleeting  glimpses  of  the  sea  and  more  lingering  visions 
of  beautiful  lakes  and  streams.  This  trolley  ride  was 
Friday  morning's  diversion,  with  picnic  lunch  or  clam- 
bake at  Brooklawn  Park. 

At  3  P.  M.  there  was  another  ball  game  on  the  School 
grounds  between  married  and  single  players,  the  mar- 
ried men  winning  in  a  score  of  3  to  2. 

Fridaj''  evening  there  was  a  dance  at  the  Town  Hall, 
with  music  by  Burke's  Orchestra  from  Brockton. 

The  success  of  a  week  of  outdoor  festivities  depends 
largely  upon  good  weather,  and  the  perverseness  of 
Nature  in  weeping  upon  such  occasions,  as  well  as  on 
weddings  and  picnics,  is  but  too  well  known.  Each 
day  of  the  celebration  had  been  fair  however,  until 
Saturday,  the  last  day,  which  was  stormy.  So  the 
3^acht  and  motor  boat  races — including  the  boats  of  the 
visiting  Beverly  yacht  club — were  tardily  undertaken 
and  conducted  under  difficulties.  Many  people  were 
disappointed  in  not  being  able  to  see  from  shore  and 
wharves,  the  fair  sight  of  the  harbor  white  with  sails. 

The  rain  did  not  prevent  music  lovers  from  enjoying 
the  organ  recital  in  the  Universalist  Church  that  after- 
noon, but  the  band  concert  and  fireworks  which  were 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  15 

to  wind  up  the  week's  festivities  in  the  evening  were 
postponed  until  Tuesday  night.  Unfortunately  that 
evening  also  was  cloudy,  ending  in  rain,  and  the  last  to 
linger  on  streets  and  wharves  were  caught  in  the 
showers,  but  not  before  the  programme  had  been  car- 
ried out.  The  band  played  at  the  head  of  Long  Wharf ; 
the  harbor  was  illuminated  with  a  big  bonfire  on 
Holmes'  wharf  and  red  lights  at  various  places;  visit- 
ing yachts  were  lighted  with  electric  lights  and  the 
display  of  fireworks  was  a  fine  one,  including  two  "set 
pieces"  especially  designed  for  Mattapoisett's  Anni- 
versarj''. 

The  visitors'  book  at  the  Public  Library  records  the 
names,  dates  of  birth  and  length  of  residence  in  town, 
of  just  two  hundred  people.  The  oldest  of  these  were 
Mrs.  Susan  Denham  Taber  of  Fairhaven,  who  was  born 
in  Mattapoisett  in  1823  and  lived  here  until  1848; 
Mrs.  Lucy  Barstow  Gurnej^  of  Norfolk  Downs,  born 
1824,  left  town  in  1837  ;  and  Mr.  Ezra  Dexter  of  Chelsea, 
a  resident  of  Mattapoisett  from  1826  to  1847. 

]\Iany  of  these  two  hundred  guests  are  frequently  in 
town,  others  have  not  been  back  for  years.  To  all,  this 
little  book  will  serve  as  a  reminder  of  a  pleasant  week — 
pleasant  not  only  because  of  the  excursions  and  enter- 
tainments so  hastily  sketched  here,  but  for  the  charm 
of  going  back  in  spirit  to  one's  youth,  of  visiting  places 
once  loved  and  frequented,  of  seeing  again  old  friends, 
and  talking  over  the  past  with  them. 

Many  of  the  older  people,  at  least,  have  a  tender 
memory  of  such  reminiscent  chats  with  Mr.  Ellis  Men- 
dell  in  his  store, — he  wiio  so  soon  after  "joined  the 
great  majority." 

If  any  of  the  visitors  or  home  people  are  so  fortunate 


16  MATTAPOISBTT 

as  to  see  that  coming  celebration  fifty  years  from  now, 
they  can  of  course  make  comparisons.  No  doubt  that 
will  be  a  very  fine  affair,  but  this  one  had  some  features 
worthy  of  being  noted. 

Mattapoisett  has  not  outgrown  her  Pilgrim  inherit- 
ance so  but  she  can  still  take  pleasure  seriously.  There 
was  no  carnival  frolicing,  no  Fourth  of  July  lawless- 
ness, no  disorderly  or  intoxicated  persons  were  seen 
in  town  during  the  week.  The  observance  was  insti- 
tuted and  conducted  by  the  most  serious  citizens  with 
the  serious  purpose  of  uniting  in  a  common  interest, 
all  who  love  "the  beautiful  town  that  is  seated  by  the 
sea" — their  home  past  or  present. 

Incidentally,  everybody  had  a  good  time ;  so  it  was 
a  great  success ;  and  that  is  all  which  can  be  expected 
of  the  next  celebration;  even  though  they  should  sail 
over  old  Rochester-town  in  an  airship  or  explore  the 
bottom  of  Buzzards  Bay  by  submarine  vessel. 


W.  E.  Spaninv.  Jr.        W.  K.  Blaim-    J.  K.  Norton  Shaw     :\[is.  J.  L.  Haiumond 
N.  S.  llcndfll      IN.  Tildeii    Miss  H.  K.  Nelson.  1.  I'.  Atsatt        L.  LeB.  Dexter 

E.  C.  Stetson  J.  S.  Burbank        C.  S.  Mendell  D.  Mahoney 


CELEBRATION      COMMITTEE 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  17 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 
COMMITTEES. 

EXECUTIVE    COMRUTTEE — 

Charles  S.  Mendell,  President 
James  S.  Burbank,  Secretary 
Dr.  Walter  E.  Blaine,  Secretary 
Lemuel  LeBaron  Dexter,  Treasurer 
Charles  S.  Hamlin 
Isaiah  P.  Atsatt 
Lemuel  LeBaron  Holmes 
Dennis  Mahoney 
J.  E.  Norton  Shaw- 
William  E.  Sparrow,  Jr. 
Rogers  L.  Barstow 
Everett  C.  Stetson 
Nathan  S.  Mendell 
Lester  W.  Jenney 
Dr.  Irving  N.  Tilden 
Mrs.  James  L.  Hammond 
Miss  Hannah  F.  Nelson 

SlTB-CO>OnTTEES — 

Athletic— 

J.  E.  Norton  Shaw,  Chairman 

Ellis  L.  Mendell 

Addison  Curtis 

Louis  C.  Bacon 

Arthur  C.  Perchard 

Mrs.  Frank  J.  Abbe 


Book — 


Charles  S.  Hamlin,  Chairman 
William  E.  Sparrow,  Jr. 
Lemuel  LeBaron  Dexter 
Mrs.  James  L.  Hammond 
Lemuel  LeBaron  Holmes 


18 


MATTAPO'ISBTT 


Hospitality- 


Publicity — 


Invitation — 


Decoration — 


Finance- 


Lawn  Party- 


Dr.  Irving  N.  Tilden,  Chairman 
John  T.  Atsatt 
Miss  Hannah  F.  Nelson 
Miss  Gertrude  W.  Dexter 
Miss  Mary  F.  Briggs 

Lester  W.  Jenney,  ^Chairman 
Charles  H.  Johnson 
Nathan  Smith 

James  S.  Burbank,   Chairman 
Mrs.  Charles  S.  Hamlin 
Mrs.  Frank  M.  Sparrow 

Nathan  S.  Mendell,  Chairman 

Dennis  Mahoney 

John  S.  Hammond 

Charles  F.  Nye 

Miss  Charlotte  Parsons 

Mrs.  Francis  E.  Bacon 

Everett  C.  Stetson,   Chairman 
Harry  W.  Griffin 
Theophilus  Parsons 
Mrs.  Edward  E.  Wood 

Dr.  Walter  E.  Blaine,  Chairman 

Mrs.  Ellis  L.  Mendell 

Charles  S.  Mendell 

Charles  F.  Nye 

Addison  Curtis 

Mrs.  Jane  R.  Stanton 

Mrs.  Frank  J.  Abbe 

Mrs.  Lemuel  LeBaron  Dexter 

Miss  Wealtha  Stetson 

Miss  Abbie  W.  Bolles 


THE     OLD     STAGE     COACH 
[pa  rade] 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL 


19 


Concert — 

Taracie — 
Clambake — 


Miss  Edith  M.  Burbank 
Miss  Mary  E.  Ferrell 
Mrs.  Frank  M.  Sparrow 
Mrs.  Arthur  C.  Perchard 

Dr.  Irving  N.  Tilden,  Chairman 
Mrs.  Irving  N.  Tilden 
Miss  Florence  F.  Purrington 
Mrs.  Charles  S.  Hamlin 

Addison  Curtis 

Isaiah  P.  Atsatt 


20  MATTAPOISETT 


TREASURER'S  REPORT 


LEMUEL  LeBARON   DEXTER,   TREASURER 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL    FUND 


Dr. 

For  subscriptions  as  follows: 

(Including  $125  especially  given 

toward  the  preparation 

of  a  book  of  history) 

One  of  $150.00, 

$150.00 

Otie  of  $125.00, 

125.00 

Ten  of  $100.00, 

1,000.00 

One  of  $75.00, 

75.00 

Four  of  $50.00, 

200.00 

One  of  $35.00, 

35.00 

Nine  of  $25.00, 

225.00 

Five  of  $20.00, 

100.00 

Fifteen  of  $10.00, 

150.00 

Twenty-six  of  $5.00, 

130.00 

Thirty-two  of  less  than  $5.00, 

47.00    $2,237.00 

Town  appropriation, 

500.00 

$2,737.00 

Included    in    the    above    were    contributions    from    the 

following  New  Bedford  business  firms:  Evening  Standard, 

C.  F.  Wing  Co.,  Household,  Steiger,  Dudgeon  Co.,  N.  B. 

&  O.  Street  Railway  Co.,  John  W.  Paul. 

Paid  orders  approved  by  the  general  committee: 

On  account  of  Committee  on  Book  of  History: 

Mary  Hall  Leonard,  contract,  $250.00 

Francis  T.  Hammond,  work  on  map,  1.50 

James  E.  Reed,  photographs,  7.90 

L.  B.  Dp.yton,  stenography,  28.50 

H.  S.  Hutchinson  &  Co.,  use  of  photograph,       1.00 
Grafton  Press,  in  addition  to  publishing 
contract,    2  6    extra    cuts,    extra    proof 
correction,  and  indexing,  252.55 

J.  S.  Conant  &  Co.,  village  map,  12.50 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL 


21 


Frank  M.  Metcalf,  map,  5.00 

J.  G.  Tirrell,  photographs,  8.60 

Lester  W.  Jenney,  typewriting  expense,  5.00 
Harriet  M.  Hammond,  typewriting,  travel, 

etc.,  12.30 
William  E.  Sparrow,  Jr.,  travel  and  ex- 
pense, 2.00 
Lemuel  LeB.  Dexter,  typewriting,  travel, 

expenses,  38.15 


Committee  on  Publicity. 

Dennison     Manufacturing     Co.,  special 

stamps,  50.00 

Lester  W.  Jenney,  expense,  4.10 

Geo.  E.  Barrows,  printing,  1.20 


Committee  on  Hospitality. 

Mary  F.  Dexter,  garment  tags, 
Grace  A.  Tilden,  custodian. 


Committee  on  Reception. 

Charles  S.  Mendell,  expense, 
C.  E.  Tolman,  orchestra. 
Abbe  &  Griffin,  supplies. 


5.00 
9.38 


2.50 

15.00 

2.39 


Committee  on  Finance. 

E.  Anthony  &  Sons,  papers  mailed,  5.75 
Charles    S.    Mendell,    postage,    printing, 

stationery,  42.05 

George  E.  Barrows,  printing,  3.50 

Mary  W.  Wood,  postage  and  expense,  2.3  6 


Committee  on  Invitations. 

James  S.  Burbank,  postage  and  expenses,  15.89 

George  E.  Barrows,  printing,  8.55 

E.  Anthony  &  Sons,  printing,  8.20 


Committee  on  Sunday  Services. 

George  L.  Shaw%  on  account  of  music,  13.20 
Rev.  Dr.  William  H.  Cobb,  sermon,  travel, 

and  expense,  32.00 

George  E.  Barrows,  printing  programs,  4.20 


$625.00 


55.30 


14.38 


19.89 


53.66 


32.64 


49.40 


22 


MATTAPOISETT 


Committee  on  Organ  Recital. 

George  L.  Shaw,  expenses, 
Edgar  A.  Barrell,  organist, 
George  E.  Barrows,  programs, 


.50 
5.00 
1.25 


Committee  on  Semi-Centeunial  Service. 


Hon.  John  W.  Hammond,  expenses, 
C.  E.  Tolman,  orchestra, 
Isaiah  P.  Atsatt,  expenses, 

Committee  on  Clambake. 

For  use  of  tent, 

Isaiah  P.  Atsatt,  expenses. 

Committee  on  Decorations. 

J.  B.  Athearn,  electric  fixtures,  rented, 
J.   S.   Hammond,   arch   contract   and   ex- 
penses, 
Blair  Sign  Co.,  general  contract, 
H.  S.  Potter,  electric  letters, 
N.  B.  Gas  &  Edison  Light  Co.,  current,  etc., 
John  S.  Dexter,  expenses,  at  beach, 
J.  S.  Hammond,  trees  on  Luce  lot. 


4.40 
12.80 

2.20 


20.00 
13.22 


10.55 

78.77 

300.00 

6.00 

25.00 
4.00 
3.13 


Committee  on  Badges. 

A.  R.  Lopez  &  Co.,  special  badges,  12.30 

Warren  P.  Tobey,  general  order,  badges,  43.25 

S.  Lee  Sparrow,  commission  on  sales,  8.39 


Received  from  sales  of  badges. 


63.94 
41.96 


Committee  on  Events  of  the  Week. 

Addison  Curtis,  on  account  of  parade,  50.00 

Addison  Curtis,  sports,  50.00 

Arthur  C.  Perchard,  for  ball  game,  60.00 

Ellis  L.  Mendell,  for  Milo  Burke's  Band,  100.00 

Ellis  L.  Mendell,  for  fireworks,  150.00 

Ellis  L.  Mendell,  for  illumination,  25.00 
Joseph  R.  Taber,  Jr.,  Treas.,  Mattapoisett 

Band,  150.00 

N.  B.  &  O.  St.  Railway  Co.,  special  cars,  134.50 

J.  E.  Norton  Shaw,  on  account  steamer,  75.00 


6.75 


19.40 


33.22 


427.45 


21.98 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  23 


J.  E.  Norton  Shaw,  printing,  50.00 

J.  E.  Norton  Shaw,  incidentals,  50.00 

J.  E.  Norton  Shaw,  yacht  race,  150.00 

George  E.  Barrows,  printing,  2.00 

Arthur  C.  Perchard,  second  ball  game,  15.00 


1,061.50 


Cash  returned  by  J.  E.  Norton 
Shaw,  proceeds  of  car  fares  and 
steamer  tickets,  as  general  bal- 
ance from  committee,  109.16 


952.34 


On  account  of  officers  and  general  committee. 

George  E.  Barrows,  general  stationery,  28.40 
Charles  S.  Mendell,  typewriting,  postage,  21.05 
George  E.  Barrows,  general  programs,  15.00 
George  A.  Austin,  street  watering,  15.00 
James  S.  Burbank,  Secretary's  expenses,  4.25 
Walter  E.  Blaine,  Secretary's  expenses,  1.25 
E.  Anthony  &  Sons,  receipts  for  treasurer,  2.25 
Lemuel  LeBaron  Dexter,  treasurer's  ex- 
penses, 4.05 


91.25 


Committee  on  Souvenir  Book. 

James  E.  Reed,  photographs,  8.00 

E.  P.  Tilghman,  photographs,  1.00 

K.  K.  Najarian,  photographs,  1.50 

E.  Anthony  &  Sons,  printing  and  bind- 
ing, cuts,  etc.,  195.75 

Irving  N.  Tilden,  committee  expenses,  3.25 

Postage,  express  and  delivery  of  book 

to  contributors,  7.80 

217.30 

Reimbursed   $10.64  to  each  of  eleven 

guarantors,  117.04 

$2,737.00 


24  MATTAPOISETT 


RESOLUTIONS 

Adopted   by   the 

Mattapoisett  Semi-Centennial  Committee 

WHEREAS,  in  the  midst  of  its  labors,  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  committee  of  Mattapoisett  has  been  sadly 
reminded  of  the  uncertainty  of  life  by  the  sudden 
death  of  one  of  its  members,  Judge  Lemuel  LeBaron 
Holmes,  and 

WHEREAS,  this  sad  occurrence  has  filled  us  with 
sorrow  and  regret,  and 

WHEREAS,  we  recognize  the  deep  interest  he  mani- 
fested in  the  welfare  of  this  town  and  its  people — that 
he  cherished  the  memories  of  its  past,  and  was  full  of 
hope  and  confidence  in  its  future : 

RESOLVED,  that  we  tender  our  sincere  sympathy 
to  the  family  of  the  deceased  in  its  deep  bereavement, 

RESOLVED,  that  we  express  our  appreciation  of  his 
noble  and  manly  character,  and  his  high  and  honorable 
attainments — and,  that,  as  we  recall  the  worthy  and 
respected  townsmen  who  have  fallen  by  the  pathway 
of  time,  another  distinguished  name  has  been  added 
to  the  long  list, 

RESOLVED,  that  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  sent 
to  the  family  and  also  entered  in  the  records  of  the 
committee. 

Signed,  William  E.  Sparrow,  Jr. 

Isaiah  P.  Atsatt 

For  the  50th  Anniversary  Committee. 


Hon.      LEMUEL      LeBARON       HOLMES 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  25 


Official  Programmes 

AUGUST  18-25,  1907 


Sunday  August  18. 

Special  services  in  Congregational  Church  at 
2  P.  M. 

Speaker — Rev.  W.  H.  Cobb  of  Boston. 

Tuesday  August  20. 

10.30  A.M. — Address    by    Hon.    J.    W.    Hammond 
of  Supreme  Judicial  Court,  Boston. 
Music — Tolman's  Orchestra, 
Congregational  Church. 
2.30  P.  M. — Athletic  sports  at  School  Park. 
Evening — Band     Concert    and    Village    Illumina- 
tion. 

General  Reception  in  Town  Hall,  8.3  0  o'clock. 

Wednesday  August  21. 

9.3  0  A.M. — Parade     in     four    sections:     Antique, 
Business,   Driving  Horses,   and   Automobiles. 
Mattapoisett  Band. 

12.3  0 — Clambake  on  grounds  opposite  Congrega- 
tional Church. 

3  to  10  P.  M. — Improvement  Association  Lawn 
Party  with  Burke's  Brockton  Band  of  22  pieces 
in  evening,   at  corner   Pearl   and   Main   sts. 

Thursday  August  23. 

10  A.  M. — Ball  Game,  School  Ground,  Mattapoisett 

vs.  Bristols  of  Rhode  Island. 
1.30    P.    M. — Steamboat    excursion     in     Buzzards 

Bay  and  Vineyard  Sound. 
Evening,     6-8    o'clock — Concert    by    Mattapoisett 

Band. 
8    o'clock — Improvement    Association    Vocal    and 

Instrumental  Concert  in  Town  Hall. 


2  6  MATTAPOISETT 

Friday  August  23. 

8.50  A.  M. — Trolley  Ride  to  Marion,  WarBham, 
Middleboro,  Lakeville,  New  Bedford,  and  Fair- 
haven. 

3  P.  M. — Ball  Game,  School  Ground,  between 
Local  teams. 

Evening — Town  Hall,  8  o'clock.  Grand  Ball, 
Burke's  Brockton  Orchestra,  eight  pieces. 

Saturday  August  24. 

1  P.  M. — Motor   boat   races.     Beverly   Yacht   Club 

races  open  to  all. 
3  P.  M. — Organ    recital    in    Universalist    Church. 
Evening — Harbor     Illumination,     Grand     display 

of  Fireworks  at  8  o'clock,  from  wharf.      Band 

Concert. 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL 


27 


UNION    SERVICE 

Congregational  Church  August  18th,  1907 

At   2  p.  M. 


THE    ORDER    OF    SERVICE 
Organ  Voluntary 


Doxology 
Invocation 

Solo — Gloria 

Psalm  90 


Mr.   Edgar  Lord. 

The  Rev.   C.  Julian  Tuthlll 

Mr.  W.  H.  Bassett 

The  Rev.  W.  H.  Falkner 


Solo — Come  Unto  Me 

Mrs.  L.  H.  Miller 
Hebrews.  13 

The  Rev.  W.  H.  Falkner 

Solo — The  Way  of  Peace 

Mr.  W.  H.  Bassett 
Prayer 

The  Rev.  P.  A.  Allen,  Jr. 
Violin — Largo 

Miss  Florence  F.  Purrington 
Hymn 


Address 


The  Rev.  W.  H.  Cobb,  D.  D. 


Solo — The  Plains  of  Peace 

Mrs.  L.  H.  Miller 


Buzzi-Peccia 

Coenen 

Lloyd 

Handel 
Italian 

Barnard 


28  MATTAPOISETT 

Hymn  Tune—Gilead 

The  year  of  jubilee  ha^  come 
Here  in  our  Mattapoisett  home. 
Thanks  be  to  God,  to  him  give  praise. 
His  loving  kindness  brings  these  days. 

O  hail  the  God  of  Plymouth  Rock! 
For  he  hath  blessed  a  little  flock, 
Grown  into  nation  and  our  state. 
Guided  beyond  the  Golden  Gate. 

Here  on  the  shores  of  Buzzards    Bay 
Our  Fathers  met  to  sing  and  pray. 
Children  of  Pilgrims  and  their  God, — 
We  follow  in  the  path  they  trod. 

From  out  the  nobler  lives  of  old 
Came  thoughts  and  deeds  like  purest  gold; 
God  in  the  heart,  his  truth  in  mind, 
Destiny  glorious  doth  find. 

The  year  of  jubilee  speeds  by, 
'Tis  ours  to  do  and  then  to  die; 
Vows  unto  God  we  here  do  bring, 
O  Lord  of  old,  be  still  our  King! 

— C.  Julian  Tuthill. 
Benediction  ; 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  29 

THE  OPENING   SERVICE 

Congegational  Church  Tuesday,  August  20,  1907 

At  10.30  A.  M. 


PROGRAMME 
Music  by  Tolman's  Orchestra 


Idylle  Pastorale 
Melodie  in  F 
Serenade 

Address 

Meditation 
Address 


Trio — Violin,   'Cello,  Organ 
Hon.  Charles  S.  Hamlin 


Judge  John  W.   Hammond 
Supreme  Judicial  Court,  Boston 


Home  Sweet  Home 


Trinkaus 

Rubenstein 

Widor 


Ries 


FIELD  SPORTS 

AT     MATTAPOISETT     SCHOOL     GROUNDS 
Tuesday,  August  20,  at  2,30  P.  M. 


TUG  OF  WAR — 

Hiller's  Team    (George   R.   Hiller,   Perkins,   Wm. 
Kinney,  Benj.  Kinney),  defeated 
LeBaron's  Team   (Alfred  LeBaron,  Edwin  Howes, 
J.  Kinney,  J.  Peters). 
Time  1  minute.  Prize  $4.00 


30  MATTAPOISETT 

SHOE    SCRABBLE — 


1st  prize — Edwin  Perkins 

$1.50 

2nd  prize — Harry  Henry 

1.00 

SACK  RACE— 

1st  prize — Edwin  Perkins 

$1.50 

2nd  prize — Geo.  Bolles 

1.00 

THREE-LEGGED  RACE — 

1st  prize — David  Hiller 

and  $1.50 

Lester  Crampton 
2nd  prize — Walter  Vaughn 

and  1.00 

Raymond   Winslow 

WHEELBARROW    RACE — 

1st  prize — George  Hiller  $2.00 

2nd  prize — A.  Skidmore  1.00 

POTATO    RACE 

1st  prize — Ray  Winslow  $2.00 

2nd  prize — W.  Seebell 
2nd  prize— John   Mendell 

EGG    AjSD    spoon    RACE — 

1st  prize — Ellaine  Nickerson  $2.00 

2nd  prize — Eva  Kinney  1.00 

SPEECH  BY  "BRLT)DER  JONES" 

Henry  J.  Purrington 

75- YD.  DASH — (Over  16  yrs). 

1st  prize — George  Hiller  $2.00 

2nd  prize — A.  Skidmore  1.00 

CLIMBING   GREASED   POLE — 

Won  by  H.  G.  Tinkham  $2.00 

RUNNING    BROAD    JU»iP — 

Lester  W.  Jenney 


1.00 


„       ,     T^     .                .    16  ft.  $3.00 

Frank  Dexter           '  * 

75-\TD.  DASH — (Under  16  yrs.). 

1st  prize — Harold  Dunn  $1.50 

2nd  prize — Lester  Crampton  1.00 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL 


31 


SHAKING    THE    RATTLE— 

Albert  Rowland 
H.  G.  Tinkham 


;2.00 


Entries  confined  to  residents  of  Mattapoisett. 

Addison  Curtis 
Arthur  C.  Perchard 

Committee  on  Sports. 


CONCERT 

Thursday  Evening,  August  22,   at  8  o'clock 


Mr.  Thaddeus  Rich,  Violin 

Mr.  Irving  Swan  Brown,  'Cello 
Mr.  Carl  Lamson,  Piano 

Mrs.  Daniel  Dulany  Addison,  Reader 
Mr.   Theodore  Wood,   Baritone 

Miss   M.   Alice  Witchell,   Soprano 

PROGRAMME 

Allegro  from  Trio  for  Violin,  'Cello  and 

Piano — Op.   49  Mendelssohn 

Mr.  Rich,  Mr.  Brown  and  Mr.  Lamson 


The  Sword  of  Ferrara 

Prelude — Le  Deluge 

Parla 

Prelude 
Waltz 


Mr.   Wood 
Mr.  Rich 

Miss  Witchell 

Mr.  Lamson 


F.  F.  Bullard 

Saint-Saens 

Arditti 

Rachmaniruyff 
Chopin 


32 


MATTAPOISETT 


Dr.  Moonshine — A  Comedy  Mrs.  Daniel  Sargent  Curtis 

Mrs.  Addison 

(a)  In  some  sad  hour 

(b)  Tick-Tack-Too  F.  F.  Bullard 

Mr.    Wood 
Mazurkas  Wieniawski 

Mr.  Rich 
Oh,  for  a  Day  of  Spring  Andrews 

Miss  Witchell 

Trio — Andante  Mendelssohn 

Mr.  Rich,  Mr.  Swan,  Mr.  Lamson 


ORGAN    RECITAL 

Universalist  Church  Saturday,  August  24,  1907 

At  3  p.  M. 


Mr.  Edgar  A.  Barrell 
Miss  Gertrude  W.  Dexter 
Miss  Florence  F.  Purrington 


Organist 

-    Vocal  Soloist 

Violinist 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  33 

SERMON 

BY 

REV.  WILLIAM  H.  COBB,  D.  D. 

Son  of  Rev.  Leander  Cobb,  of  Sippican. 

Librarian  Congregational  House,   Boston 

TEXT. 

Ecclesiastes    VII.   10. 

Say  not  thou,  What  is  the  cause  that  the  former 

days  were  better  than  these  f  for  thou  dost  not 

inquire  wisely  concerning  this. 

Whether  the  old  is  better  than  the  new  is  a  question 
sure  to  be  raised  afresh  in  every  generation.  If  it 
could  be  decided  by  majority  vote,  there  would  be 
small  hope  for  the  radical  side.  The  partj^  of  con- 
servatism holds  the  masses;  the  party  of  progress  has 
to  fight  for  its  footing.  It  was  so  in  the  days  of  Christ ; 
"The  old  is  better,"  cried  the  people.  It  was  so  cen- 
turies before,  when  our  text  was  written  by  an  un- 
known sage  in  the  name  of  Solomon.  "What  is  the 
reason,"  said  someone  to  him,  "that  the  former  days 
were  better  than  these?"  "You  are  putting  two  ques- 
tions in  one,"  replied  the  wise  man.  "I  call  for  the 
previous  question.  Are  you  so  sure  the  days  of  old 
were  better?"  But  the  lovers  of  old  ways,  the  con- 
servatives, are  not  to  be  put  down  without  a  hearing. 
They  should  by  no  means  be  confounded  with  the  pessi- 
mists, who  think  everything  is  going  to  the  bad.  The 
conservatives  embrace  not  only  the  major  part  of  man- 


34  MATTAPOISETT 

kind,  but  many  of  the  wise  as  well.  There  is  much 
to  be  said  for  their  side  of  the  question,  and  it  is  this 
side  which  we  will  look  at  first,  beginning  at  the  lowest 
point  in  our  complex  life. 

I.  In  what  respects  do  former  times  seem  better? 
On  its  physical  side,  the  leading  note  of  the  present 
age  is  a  multitude  of  inventions,  designed  to  promote 
our  comfort  and  happiness.  It  is  very  pleasant,  for 
instance,  to  speed  over  the  country  in  an  electric  car, 
and  smile  at  locomotion  by  horse  power;  but  yet  our 
ancestors  had  compensations.  Now  and  then,  to  be 
sure,  a  runaway  team  imperilled  some  one's  life  or 
limb ;  but  now  the  newspapers  tell  us  almost  daily  of 
terrible  accidents  on  electric  lines,  bringing  destruction 
to  scores  of  passengers.  When  you  reflect  upon  it, 
how  many  thousands  of  precious  lives  have  already 
been  offered  up  in  sacrifice  to  this  new  Juggernaut. 
We  have  harnessed  the  lightning  but  it  is  stronger  than 
we.  Moreover,  there  is  rest  to  be  feared  as  well  as 
motion.  Were  you  ever  stalled  in  an  electric  car,  on 
a  bitter  cold  night,  because  of  a  mere  snow-drift, 
which  the  old-fashioned  stage-coach  would  have  floun- 
dered through  merrily?  Failing  this,  the  coach  would 
have  returned  to  the  nearest  inn ;  but  your  modern  in- 
vention will  neither  move  forward  nor  backward ;  wait 
for  the  day  as  patiently  as  you  can. 

Nor  is  nature  the  only  power  to  dread  in  such  cases. 
The  wide  sweep  of  invention  requires  the  co-operation 
of  a  great  body  of  men;  but  how  if  they  refuse  to  co- 
operate? It  is  but  a  few  years  since  that  fearful  ex- 
perience in  Canada,  when  a  long  train  of  steam  cars 
was  abandoned  at  night  by  the  whole  railroad  force, 
at  a  point  deliberately  chosen  to  inflict  the  utmost  dis- 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  35 

comfort  upon  inoffensive  passengers.  That  was  in- 
tended to  make  the  strike  most  effectual.  The  strilve! 
Here  is  an  invention  which  our  fathers  knew  not.  Its 
evils  grow  with  the  passing  years,  seldom  more  potent 
or  portentous  than  at  the  present  hour.  We  shall 
never  know  the  depths  of  misery  such  experiments  in 
industrial  methods  bring  in  their  train. 

To  touch  on  another  topic,  there  has  been  for  a  gen- 
eration or  two  a  general  movement  away  from  the  iso- 
lation of  country  life  in  order  to  secure  the  advantages 
of  the  city ;  but  behold !  the  city  is  surrendered  to  or- 
ganized highwaymen,  not  always  in  the  ranks  of  labor, 
but  often  in  the  city  government  itself.  Oh!  the  for- 
mer times  were  better.  Then  the  majority  ruled,  now 
the  bosses  rule.  Then  most  people  led  an  independent 
life  on  a  farm  or  in  a  trade.  They  stood  on  their  own 
feet,  thought  for  themselves  and  said  their  say.  In 
the  good  phrase  of  that  period,  they  took  time  to  make 
up  their  minds.  Now  our  very  thinking  is  done  by 
machinery,  and  served  up  hot  with  the  daily  paper. 
Instead  of  trades,  we  have  gigantic  monopolies,  heart- 
less and  cruel;  instead  of  farms  we  have  slums.  For- 
merly, the  household  grew  up  in  orderly  spirit  around 
a  father  and  mother  who  required  and  received  sub- 
mission and  honor;  now,  the  first  rule  of  the  family 
seems  to  be,  "Parents,  obey  your  children."  Then, 
education  meant  an  all  round  development;  now,  it 
denotes  a  one-sided  specialization.  Few  books  were 
read  in  our  grandfathers'  days,  but  those  few  were  di- 
gested and  assimilated  by  frequent  meditation ;  whereas 
with  us  meditation  is  a  lost  art,  quite  superseded  by 
the  art  of  galloping  through  books  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible, what  is  imbibed  today  being  forgotten  tomorrow. 


36  MATTAPOISETT 

The  social  and  political  product  most  characteristic  of 
our  ancestors  is  the  town  meeting;  the  social  and  po- 
litical product  of  our  age  is  the  saloon,  an  institution 
unknown  to  our  fathers;  for  while  it  is  true  that  they 
had  the  corner  grocery,  dispensing  rum  and  cider,  the 
saloon  as  an  institution  has  been  established  and  sanc- 
tioned by  modern  laws,  and  constitutes  a  political  ma- 
chine of  tremendous  though  often  unsuspected  power. 
Ascend  now  to  our  moral  and  spiritual  relations.  In 
early  times,  the  line  which  separated  the  church  from 
the  world  was  distinct  and  sharp.  A  man  was  con- 
victed of  sin,  then  converted  to  Christ.  He  turned  his 
back  on  the  world  and  joined  the  people  of  God  in  a 
most  solemn  transaction,  binding  himself  hy  sacred 
vows,  the  breaking  of  which  he  knew  would  subject 
him  to  public  discipline.  In  these  days,  a  boy  joins  a 
young  people's  society  and  is  supposed  to  keep  his  re- 
ligious pledge  if  he  daily  reads  a  Bible  verse  or  two 
and  utters  a  hurried  petition  or  two.  When  he  grows 
older,  he  graduates  into  the  church,  but  by  no  means 
out  of  the  world ;  for  the  world  is  in  the  church,  with 
its  low  standards,  its  frivolous  dissipations,  its  godless 
Sabbaths,  its  neglect  of  eternal  concerns.  This  life 
is  all ;  the  great  beyond  is  pushed  out  of  thought.  Even 
the  best  of  the  churches  are  institutional,  chiefly  ab- 
sorbed in  ministering  to  the  wants  of  the  present  state 
of  existence.  Once,  life  was  probation,  an  isthmus  be- 
tween the  oceans  of  the  infinite  past  and  the  infinite 
future. 

"Lo,  on  a  narrow  neck  of  land 
'Twixt  two  unbounded  seas  I  stand." 

Fifty  years  ago,  as  I  remember  well,  v\^e  used  to  sing 
that  grand  hymn  in  this  region,  but  I  have  not  heard 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  37 

it  sung  for  many  a  year.  The  spirit  of  the  age,  the 
Zeitgeist,  is  out  of  touch  with  that  whole  class  of  ap- 
peals ;  the  entire  drift  of  our  times,  church  life  and  all, 
is  secular,  and  intensely,  increasingly  so.  But  if  the 
Psalmist  was  right  when  he  exclaimed,  "It  is  good  for 
me  to  draw  nigh  unto  God.  Whom  have  I  in  heaven 
but  thee?  and  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I  desire  in 
comparison  with  thee,"  then  it  must  be  that  the  for- 
mer times  of  pious  devotion  were  better  than  the  pres- 
ent times  of  prevailing  worldliness. 

So  much  at  least  can  be  said  on  the  conservative  side 
of  the  question  before  us.  That  there  is  another  side 
will  at  once  appear. 

II.  The  first  suggestion  we  have  for  our  friend  who 
has  been  speaking  for  the  last  few  minutes  is  that  he 
enlarge  his  vision  and  gain  a  wider  outlook.  Jesus 
Christ  said,  "The  field  is  the  world,"  but  we  have  been 
looking  at  a  small  corner  of  our  own  favored  land.  To 
gain  a  broader  standing  ground  in  time  as  well  as 
space,  let  us  look  back  a  hundred  years  instead  of  fifty. 
What  was  the  condition  of  the  ivorM  a  century  ago  and 
what  is  its  condition  today?  That  is  the  fair  way  to 
attack  the  problem  of  our  text.  The  conservative  la- 
ments, for  instance,  over  the  present  desecration  of  the 
Christian  Sabbath.  Why,  there  was  no  Christian  Sab- 
bath a  hundred  years  ago,  except  in  a  little  fringe  of 
States  along  our  Atlantic  coast,  and  in  the  British 
Isles,  and  among  an  insignificant  minority  on  the  Con- 
tinent of  Europe  who  resisted  the  infidelity  that  was  in 
fashion  then  both  in  Europe  and  America.  But  where 
is  the  Sabbath  now?  If  we  could  speed  around  the 
globe  today,  keeping  pace  with  the  sun  in  his  course, 
and  beginning  in  the  far  Pacific,  where  the  mariner 


38  MATTAPOISETT 

changes  his  day,  we  should  hear  the  Sabbath  bells  ring- 
ing from  many  an  island  in  that  ocean  whose  inhabi- 
tants a  century  ago  were  pagans.  We  should  find  in 
Japan  an  imperial  edict,  adopted  for  convenience  of 
intercourse  with  Christian  nations,  making  the  first  day 
of  the  week  a  rest  day  for  all  Japanese  officials.  In 
Asia  and  Africa,  we  should  pass  over  thousands  of 
worshipping  congregations  gathered  within  the  cen- 
tury. In  almost  every  country  of  Europe,  we  should 
find  that  dead  infidelity  has  yielded  to  earnest  efforts 
for  Sabbath  reform.  And  on  reaching  America,  so  ex- 
panded from  those  few  feeble  States  a  hundred  years 
ago,  the  Lord's  Day  would  greet  us  with  its  sacred 
privileges  from  the  Gulf  to  the  Great  Lakes,  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  Grant  that  the  manner  of  its 
celebration  leaves  much  to  be  desired,  the  very  fact 
of  its  weekly  return  cries  ' '  Halt ! "  to  the  bustle  of  daily 
business,  and  brings  us  face  to  face  with  our  Father  in 
heaven.  It  is  possible  that  the  strict  prohibitions  which 
hedged  the  Sabbath  in  former  times  were  less  conducive 
to  a  healthy,  genial  type  of  piety  than  the  method  in 
vogue  in  the  best  homes  of  today,  where  light  and  love 
and  liberty  are  the  favorite  watchwords.  And  who- 
ever asserts  that  the  year  1907  can  show,  in  the  terri- 
tory of  the  old  thirteen  States,  fewer  sweet,  pure, 
thoroughly  Christian  homes  than  there  were  in  1807, 
simply  proclaims  his  ignorance  of  either  the  past  or 
the  present  or  both. 

Alas!  what  a  dark,  sad  world  the  sun  shone  down 
upon  a  hundred  years  ago.  Tjrranny  brooded  over  it ; 
the  rights  of  man  were  a  scoffing  and  a  by-word,  linked 
indissolubly  in  the  minds  of  most  people  with  the  hor- 
rors of  the  French  Revolution.     The  new  experiment  of 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  39 

liberty  in  America  was  believed  to  be  foredoomed  to 
failure.  Freedom  of  thought  was  quenched;  the 
brotherhood  of  man  was  an  idle  dream,  reserved  for 
the  visionaries  of  Utopia. 

How  marvellous  is  the  change !  How  Christlike  is 
this  bond  of  unity  that  brings  men  into  fellowship 
though  sundered  by  the  whole  diameter  of  the  globe. 
A  famine  comes  in  India,  an  earthquake  in  California, 
a  persecution  in  China ;  with  electric  swiftness  the  thrill 
of  sympathy  traverses  the  continents ;  one  touch  of 
nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin.  It  cannot  but  be 
that  fellowship  of  the  mind  co-exists  with  sympathy 
of  the  heart.  If  our  Christian  faith  were  not  designed 
for  the  whole  race  of  man,  if  it  were  some  peculiarly 
American  or  European  product,  we  might  be  justified 
in  trying  to  confine  it  within  the  shell  that  has  come 
down  from  our  forefathers;  we  might  make  our  own 
interpretations  of  its  sacred  truths  a  Procrustes  bed, 
to  which  all  others  must  be  stretched  or  pruned.  But 
Jesus  Christ  was  no  Occidental.  His  mission  was  to 
the  Jew  first  and  also  to  the  Greek.  All  forms  of 
human  thought  are  plastic  to  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  It 
is  our  own  age  that  has  rediscovered  the  largeness,  the 
mighty  sweep  of  this  glorious  gospel.  No  wonder  the 
men  who  joined  the  church  in  the  early  days  of  America 
were  such  marked  men.  There  were  so  few  of  them 
that  they  could  not  but  be  conspicuous.  They  were 
fenced  out  by  tests  of  doctrine  that  represented  the 
metaphysics  of  theology  then  current,  and  they  were 
fenced  in  by  tests  of  conduct  which  the  Savior  never 
prescribed.  Our  "doctrine,  that  the  child  in  a  Christian 
home  should  grow  up  a  Christian,  and  never  know  him- 
self as  being  ami:hing  else,  is  better  by  far.     The  motto 


40  MATTAPOISETT 

for  the  church  a  century  ago  was  "Come  out  from 
among  them  and  be  ye  separate,"  which  Paul  quotes 
from  the  Old  Testament;  the  motto  at  present  is 
Christ's  own  word,  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto 
leaven,  hid  in  the  meal  till  the  ivhole  was  leavened. 
Then,  preachers  dwelt  often  on  the  picture  of  Christian 
and  Faithful  walking  through  Vanity  Fair  and  stopping 
their  ears ;  now,  the  great  church  of  God,  like  an  army 
with  banners,  is  descending  upon  Vanity  Fair,  by  its 
college  settlements,  by  its  mission  schools,  by  its  bands 
of  mercy,  to  transform  the  very  citadel  of  the  enemy 
into  the  garden  of  the  Lord. 

III.  Our  Consequent  Obligations.  If  the  pulpit 
were  a  debating  school,  the  congregation  a  senate, 
or  the  preacher  a  lawyer,  it  might  be  profitable 
to  continue  this  balancing  of  past  and  present.  The 
conservative  would  still  be  able  to  strengthen  his  po- 
sition and  the  liberal  to  answer  back.  But  herein  lies 
the  difference  between  a  sermon  and  other  kinds  of 
public  speech,  that  the  former  aims  directly  at  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  the  hearers,  persuading  them 
to  do  something  which  changes  the  moral  current  of 
their  lives.  "Follow  me,"  said  the  Master  to  his  apos- 
tles, "  and  I  will  make  you  to  become  fishers  of  men." 
Every  preacher  sent  from  God  is  an  apostle.  He  casts 
the  gospel  net,  and  now  if  any  of  you  have  been  inter- 
ested in  this  dispute  between  the  old  and  the  new,  you 
are  caught  in  the  net,  as  I  proceed  to  show. 

There  is  truth  on  the  side  of  the  conservative.  The 
evils  and  dangers  which  threaten  our  age  are  real. 
They  cannot  be  met  by  turning  away  from  them  to  the 
bright  side,  but  only  by  mixing  in  the  leaven  persis- 
tently   and    constantly,    until   the    lump    is    leavened. 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  41 

Well,  then,  who  is  to  do  this  work?  You  and  I  of  this 
age,  or  it  will  not  be  done  at  all.  And  furthermore; 
if  the  Christians  alive  at  any  one  period  will  not  do  this, 
they  lose  not  merely  their  own  generation  but  every 
generation  to  come,  exactly  as  if  all  life  in  the  universe 
should  stop  for  an  instant,  all  life  would  stop  forever. 
It  matters  not  how  many  heroes  and  martyrs,  saints 
and  confessors,  the  church  can  boast  of  in  the  past;  if 
the  people  of  God  simply  lie  on  their  oars,  I  will  not 
say  for  a  generation,  but  for  a  single  year ;  if  this  year 
1907  sees  them  sitting  at  ease  in  Zion  because  they 
think  the  times  are  so  much  better  than  they  used  to  be ; 
then  the  enemy  will  come  in  like  a  flood,  the  choice 
vineyard  of  the  Lord  will  become  a  prey,  the  boar  out 
of  the  wood  will  waste  it,  and  the  wild  beast  of  the 
field  will  devour  it.  If  it  be  true  that  there  is  greater 
Christian  progress  now  than  ever  in  the  past,  it  is  be- 
cause we  have  a  greater  multitude  of  Christian  workers, 
heartily  at  work,  than  the  past  ever  knew.  In  order  to 
change  that  truth  into  a  falsehood,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  do  an}i;hing  but  only  to  stop  doing.  Let  this  great 
army  of  Christian  workers  become  unchristian  idlers, 
and  the  thing  is  accomplished;  wickedness  exults,  and 
Satan's  kingdom  spreads  over  all  the  earth. 

My  friend,  you  grant  this  readily,  for  you  know  that 
your  weight  will  carry  you  down  hill.  A  dead  fish 
will  float  with  the  stream;  it  takes  a  live  one  to  swim 
against  it.  I  say,  you  grant  this,  but  what  will  you  do 
about  it?  I  always  delight  to  take  a  speculative  ques- 
tion and  change  it  into  a  practical  duty.  When  a 
man  asks,  "Do  you  believe  the  heathen  will  be  lost?" 
1  am  apt  to  reply,  "No,  not  if  you  and  I  save  them; 
what  are  you  doing  to  give  them  the  gospel  ? ' '     When  a 


42  MATTAPO'ISETT 

man  says,  "God's  will  is  sure  to  be  done  anyway;  so 
what  is  the  use  of  my  praying  ? "  I  answer ;  ' '  God 's  will 
will  not  be  done  by  you,  if  you  disobey  him  when  he 
commands  you  to  pray." 

Now  in  the  case  before  us ;  if  you  had  a  million  dol- 
lars, you  think  you  would  spend  it  in  doing  good ;  you 
think  you  would  accomplish  a  vast  amount;  but  that 
is  a  mere  matter  of  speculation.  The  only  way  to 
learn  whether  it  is  true  is  to  observe  what  good  you 
do  with  the  little  you  already  have.  Jesus  said : ' '  Where 
your  treasure  is,  there  will  your  heart  be  also."  The 
problem  before  us  is  a  very  simple  one;  to  improve 
upon  the  progress  of  the  past  by  taking  hold  unitedly 
of  the  duties  next  at  hand  and  discharging  them  in  the 
spirit  of  Nehemiah's  builders,  of  whom  it  was  written: 
"Every  man  builded  over  against  his  own  house." 
"The  people  had  a  mind  to  work." 

God  has  endowed  each  of  you  with  talents,  one  or 
two  or  ten,  and  for  all  these  things  you  shall  give 
account  at  the  day  of  judgment.  The  recent  history 
of  the  church  is  rich  in  examples  worthy  of  our  emula- 
tion. It  may  be  that  God  calls  some  one  of  this  com- 
pany to  go  far  hence  unto  the  Gentiles,  and  preach  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.  There  was  David  Liv- 
ingston, who  took  his  life  in  his  hand,  and  finally  laid 
it  down,  in  the  patient  endeavor  to  deliver  Africa  from 
the  slave  trade,  which  he  called  the  open  sore  of  the 
world.  He  fell  at  his  post,  but  henceforth  there  is  laid 
up  for  him  a  crown  of  righteousness. 

It  may  be  that  God  calls  some  woman  in  this  company 
to  go  far  hence  and  minister  to  the  sick  and  the  dying. 
There  was  Florence  Nightingale,  risking  her  life  and 
wrecking  her  health  in  the  Crimea,  yet  gaining  a  sure 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  43 

foundation  for  sanitary  science  whereby  the  lives  of 
uncounted  multitudes  have  been  saved,  besides  those 
whom  she  reached  directly.  Within  the  last  genera- 
tion, thousands  of  women  from  cherished  homes  at  the 
North  have  gone  down  into  our  Southern  States  to 
labor  at  the  long  hard  task  of  counteracting  the  mass 
of  ignorance  and  superstition  which  slaver}"  left  as  a 
legacy  to  our  land.  They  have  suffered  obloquy,  ostra- 
cism and  persecution ;  but  none  of  these  things  moved 
them;  and  the  promise  is  theirs;  "The  teachers  shall 
shine  as  the  firmament  and  they  that  turn  many  to 
righteousness  as  the  stars  forever  and  ever."  It  may 
be  that  for  most  of  us  the  path  of  service  is  so  humble 
that  few  will  ever  hear  our  names  or  note  our  efforts. 
Still,  let  us  be  of  good  cheer. 

"Go,  labor  on;  enough  while  here, 
If  He  shall   praise  thee,   if  He  deign 
Thy  willing  heart  to  mark  and  cheer:  — 
No  toil  for  him  shall  be  in  vain." 

Let  us  consider  fourthly  and  finally, 

TV.  Our  Inspiring  Hopes.  If  we  believed  it  to 
be  a  religious  duty  to  march  in  procession  once  a 
week  to  the  seaside  each  one  of  us  to  cast  into  the 
waves  a  sum  of  money.  I  doubt  not  we  should 
discharge  the  duty  religiously  like  the  Hindoos.  But 
how  much  better  it  is  to  serve  a  Master  who  gra- 
ciously takes  us  into  partnership  and  shows  us  what 
becomes  of  our  money.  And  not  of  our  money  alone, 
but  of  our  time,  our  toil :  everything  which  we  dedicate 
to  him.  In  the  whole  history  of  the  past,  there  never 
was  so  hopeful,  so  inspiring  a  prospect  before  the  peo- 
ple of  God  as  the  outlook  which  this  twentieth  century 
affords.      Required,  the  salvation  of  the  world;   given, 


44  MATTAPOISETT 

a  consecrated  ehiireh ;  the  problem  is  solved,  for  God 
puts  himself  into  it  and  his  name  is  Almighty.  The 
former  days  better  than  these?  Nay,  thou  dost  not 
inquire  wisely  concerning  this.  "We  sail  out  into  the 
coming  age  in  the  enthusiasm  of  a  spirit  fit  to  conquer 
the  world,  and  under  a  leader  whose  name  is  Victor, 
Xo  need  to  pray  for  miracles;  there  is  latent  power 
enough  in  the  Christian  church  of  today  to  conquer  the 
world  for  Christ.  Consider  how  our  Prince  Immanuel 
is  marshalling  the  hosts  of  his  kingdom.  As  the  stars 
in  their  courses  fought  against  Sisera,  so  the  forces  of 
Nature  are  held  by  our  Redeemer  in  the  hollow  of  his 
hand.  I  have  only  alluded  to  the  power  of  the  Chris- 
tian home.  It  is  a  significant  and  a  striking  fact  that 
whereas  a  wicked  household  tends  to  self-extinction  in 
a  few  generations,  it  is  the  law  of  the  holy  seed  to  per- 
petuate itself  from  age  to  age.  Some  of  you  may  have 
read  that  terrible  book,  "The  Jukes,"  which  consists 
mainly  of  the  bare  statistics  of  the  descendants  of  a 
single  criminal ;  the  genealogy  of  a  vicious  stock,  vigor- 
ous at  first  and  extensively  propagated,  but  dwindling 
soon  into  disease  and  feebleness  and  at  length  perishing 
utterly.  Contrast  the  descendants  of  that  great  Amer- 
ican, Jonathan  Edwards,  whose  memory  has  lately 
been  honored  by  a  tablet  in  the  very  church  in  North- 
ampton that  once  drove  him  forth  into  the  wilderness. 
Edwards  feared  God,  loved  him  and  served  him:  and 
already  a  mighty  host  have  sprung  from  his  loins  of 
men  and  women  who  walk  in  his  steps  and  who  are 
respected  by  all  that  know  them.  What  is  true  in  a 
signal  degree  of  the  Edwards  family  has  been  wit- 
nessed often  upon  a  smaller  scale.  In  view  of  the 
special  occasion  which   calls  us  together,  it  may  not 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  45 

be  amiss  to  remark  that  the  published  diary  of  one  of 
your  former  pastors,  Dr.  Thomas  Robbins,  makes  fre- 
quent mention  of  his  next  neighbor  in  the  ministry, 
Oliver  Cobb,  for  fifty  years  pastor  in  our  mother  town 
of  Rochester.  Out  of  a  large  body  of  his  descendants, 
including  now  the  third  and  fourth  and  even  the  fifth 
generation,  it  is  safe  to  assert  that  the  great  majority 
have  been  consecrated  to  a  life  of  Christian  service. 
The  Lord  hath  remembered  his  covenant  forever,  the 
word  which  he  commanded  to  a  thousand  generations. 
That  declaration  of  the  Psalmist  throws  light  upon  a 
striking  contrast  in  the  second  of  the  ten  command- 
ments. God  visits  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon 
the  children  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation:  but 
he  shows  merej'  unto  thousands,  that  is,  thousands  of 
generations  of  them  that  love  him  and  keep  his  com- 
mandments. One  of  Bushnell's  great  sermons,  in 
his  Christian  Nurture  is  entitled  "The  Out-populating 
Power  of  the  Christian  Stock. ' '  Following  this  thought, 
the  eye  of  faith  looks  down  the  vista  of  the  coming 
ages  and  beholds  the  growth  of  Christianity  under  the 
Divine  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  penetrating  the  human 
race,  ever  more  deeply  diffusing  itself,  ever  more  wide- 
ly until  the  mustard  seed  becomes  a  great  tree,  until 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  covers  the  earth  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea. 

Our  inspiring  hopes  for  the  future  are  not  confined 
to  the  normal  growth  of  grace  in  the  family  training  of 
Christian  homes.  There  is  to  be  added  the  entire  force 
of  voluntary  and  associated  effort,  acting  upon  the  world 
without.  Take,  for  example,  the  glorious  propaganda  of 
missions  at  home  and  abroad :  not  a  spasmodic  crusade 
of  enthusiasm,  but  a  vast  and  svstematie  advance  over 


46  MATTAPOISBTT 

the  whole  field — which  is  the  world.  A  few  years  ago, 
there  gathered  in  New  York  city  the  greatest  religious 
congress  of  the  age,  the  Ecumenical  Missionary  Con- 
ference. The  Christian  who  would  fire  his  soul  with 
the  loftiest  hopes  built  on  the  soundest  convictions, 
should  read  the  story  of  that  assembly,  and  learn  how 
nation  after  nation  is  being  leavened  by  the  sweet 
persuasive  power  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
shock  of  arms  may  only  rouse  the  worst  passions  of 
men  and  make  their  opposition  fiercer;  but  the  human 
heart  was  not  made  to  resist  the  persistent  battery  of  a 
love  that  will  spend  and  be  spent,  that  will  lay  down 
its  life  for  those  whom  it  delights  to  call  brethren. 
Moreover,  some  of  the  most  efficient  agencies  for  prop- 
agating the  kingdom  of  Christ  do  not  wear  the  mission- 
ary badge.  Such  are  the  Sunday  Schools  and  the 
Young  Men's  and  Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tions, all  of  comparatively  recent  origin.  And  I  for 
one  confess  to  an  admiration  of  world  wide  Christian 
Endeavor,  a  noble  army  of  children  and  youth  before 
whose  faith  the  hoary  walls  of  Jericho  shall  fall  down. 
What  though  there  be  within  the  order  not  a  little 
superficiality  and  zeal  without  knowledge?  Is  not  the 
same  true  of  the  church  at  large?  Let  us  thank  God 
for  the  hearty  devotion,  the  catholic  unity,  the  fervent 
spirit  of  these  millions  who  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
and  are  trying  daily  to  do  what  he  would  have  them 
do. 

And  now  we  shall  come  far  short  of  the  inspiring 
hopes  set  before  us  in  the  gospel  if  we  limit  our  fore- 
cast to  this  mortal  stage  of  existence.  The  Christian's 
best  things  are  to  come ;  in  that  life  which  the  apostle 
Paul  struggled  to  express  in  words  that  our  English 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  47 

Bible  gives  inadequately  thus:  "a  far  more  exceeding 
and  eternal  weight  of  glory."  The  ancients  looked 
back  for  their  golden  age ;  no  wonder  their  life  was  so 
often  dreary.  But  our  citizenship  is  from  heaven. 
The  King  of  Love  our  Shepherd  is.  Behold,  he  maketh 
all  things  new.  He  has  gone  to  prepare  a  place  for  us. 
He  will  come  again  and  receive  us  unto  himself.  It 
doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be ;  but  we  know 
that  when  he  shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  him.  The 
ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  come  to  Zion  with  songs  and 
everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads ;  they  shall  obtain  joy 
and  gladness,  and  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away. 
Wherefore,  beloved,  seeing  that  ye  look  for  such 
things,  be  diligent,  that  ye  may  be  found  of  him  with- 
out spot  and  blameless.  And  the  glory  shall  be  to  the 
Father  and  to  the  Son  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost ;  as  it  was 
in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be;  world 
without  end.     Amen. 


1 

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1 

HON.    JOHN     WILKES     HAMMOND 


ADDRESS 


HON.  JOHN  WILKES  HAMMOND 

OF  CAMBRIDGE 

Associate   Justice    of   the    Supreme   Judicial    Court 
of    Massachusetts 


Mr.   Chairman,  Ladies  and   Gentlemen :  — 

We  have  many  holidays  in  the  course  of  the  year,  but 
to  a  person  of  New  England  birth,  education  or  en- 
vironment, the  dearest  of  them  all  is  Thanksgiving 
Day.  The  day  does  not,  it  is  true,  commemorate  any 
important  event  of  our  political  history  as  do  the 
fourth  of  July,  and  the  nineteenth  of  April,  nor  any 
great  crisis  in  the  history-  of  Christianity  as  does 
Christmas  as  now  celebrated.  Nor  is  it  the  day  when 
presents  and  kindly  greetings  are  exchanged,  as  on 
Christmas  and  New  Year's  day.  And  although  it  had 
its  origin  in  the  thankfulness  of  the  pilgrims  at 
Plymouth  for  the  abundant  harvest  gathered  at  the 
end  of  their  first  season  in  1621,  still  its  celebration  is 
not  now  tinctured  with  the  peculiar  religious  fervor 
of  the  early  times.  And  yet  amid  all  the  changes  in  the 
political  and  religious  life  of  our  people,  the  day  keeps 
its  hold  upon  our  hearts,  and  it  does  so  because  it  is 
the  domestic  holiday.  It  is  the  day  above  all  others 
to  which  the  home  lovers  look  forward.    It  is  the  day 


50  MATTAPOISETT 

when  those  who  have  been  absent,  once  more  return 
to  give  the  filial  greeting  to  revered  parents,  and  when 
all  the  members  of  the  family  from  the  oldest  to  the 
youngest  gather  in  sweet  communion  around  the  an- 
cestral hearth  and  partake  of  the  bounteously  laden 
ancestral  table.  No  matter  how  inclement  the  weather, 
all  is  joy  within ;  and  the  joy  seems  all  the  greater  by 
reason  of  the  contrast  with  the  storm  raging  without. 

In  a  similar  spirit  and  with  similar  emotions  we  are 
assembled  on  this  our  municipal,  or  town,  Thanksgiv- 
ing Day.  Although  for  a  century  and  three  quarters 
Mattapoisett  was  in  existence  as  a  part  of  Rochester, 
and  since  then  has  been  for  a  half  of  a  century  a  town 
"on  its  own  hook,"  yet  we  have  never  had  such  a 
holiday.  We  have,  however,  seen  the  error  of  our  ways. 
and  in  this  respect  we  intend  to  make  amends.  "We 
propose  to  enjoy  ourselves,  (at  least  after  this  ad- 
dress is  delivered)  to  cherish  and  honor  the  memory 
of  those  who  are  gone,  to  renew  our  friendship  with 
those  still  here,  and  in  this  way  to  be  led  to  a  greater 
love  of  the  town  and  all  for  which  it  stands. 

It  is  usual  upon  occasions  like  tbis  for  the  speaker 
to  spend  much  time  in  relating  the  history  of  the 
town,  but  fortunately  I  am  relieved  from  this  work. 
As  one  of  the  features  of  this  week's  celebration  there 
has  been  prepared  an  extended  history  of  Rochester, 
and  of  Mattapoisett  both  before  and  after  its  incor- 
poration as  a  separate  town. 

I  have  had  an  opportunity  to  see  the  advance  sheets 
of  this  work.  It  is  a  very  creditable  work, — much 
above  the  ordinary  town  history  in  point  of  ability. 
It  will  be  the  most  enduring  feature  of  this  celebra- 
tion, and  if  old  home  week  had  produced  nothing  else 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  51 

than  this  book  it  would  clearly  justify  itself.  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  allude  to  some  of  the  events  men- 
tioned in  the  book,  but  as  I  have  just  said,  shall  re- 
frain from  any  extended  historical  narrative.  Nor  is 
this  an  occasion  for  the  discussion  of  any  prominent 
political,  theological,  or  economic  question.  I  con- 
ceive that  under  the  circumstances  I  shall  best  per- 
form the  part  allotted  to  me  in  this  week's  exercises, 
if  I  attempt  to  give  j'^ou  some  glimpses  of  the  town 
and  of  the  life  and  character  of  its  inhabitants  at 
certain  epochs  in  the  town's  history. 

We  are  proud  of  the  permanent  features  of  our 
home  as  made  by  nature.  The  fertile  soil,  the  babbling 
stream  periodically  filled  with  its  myriads  of  fishes, 
the  harbor  and  the  bay  with  the  cool  summer  breezes 
are  Here,  and  here  the}^  will  remain.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  the  conditions  existing  when  in  1680  the  little 
band  of  colonists  came  to  settle  around  the  herring 
river.  Prior  to  that  time,  various  grants  of  land  sit- 
uated in  Rochester  had  been  made,  but  for  some  reason 
or  other  no  settlement  had  been  made,  although  it 
may  be  that  some  shelters  had  been  put  up  and  oc- 
cupied temporarily  by  the  herders  of  cattle. 

In  1680  however  settlements  were  begun.  The  town 
was  then  covered  with  wood  except  in  places  where 
the  Indian  maize  had  been  cultivated.  The  woods 
abounded  in  foxes,  wild  cats,  and  many  other  small 
animals.  The  war  with  King  Philip  was  ended,  and 
there  was  no  reason  to  apprehend  trouble  from  the 
Indians.  From  a  pioneer's  point  of  view  the  prospect 
was  good;  and  the  hardy  settlers  came.  As  we  look 
back  it  seems  a  very  long  time  ago,  but  it  was  not. 
Queen  Elizabeth,  during  whose  reign  Bacon,  Shakes- 


52  MATTAPOISETT 

peare  and  other  shining  lights  of  English  statesmanship 
and  literature  had  lived,  had  been  dead  three  quarters 
of  a  century,  and  three  score  years  had  elapsed  since 
the  landing  of  the  pilgrims  at  Plymouth.  Wilson  Bar- 
stow,  for  many  years  a  prominent  ship  builder  in  this 
village,  who  lived  to  be  over  ninety  years  old  and  who 
died  in  1891,  must  have  known  persons  who  had  seen 
and  talked  with  some  of  these  original  settlers.  The 
time  seems  long  not  because  of  the  passage  of  many 
years,  but  because  of  the  great  changes  which  have 
since  taken  place. 

The  settlers  came  to  a  wilderness.  We  may  be 
sure  they  had  enough  to  do,  and  we  may  be  equally 
sure  that  they  resolutely  set  about  to  do  it.  I  have  often 
thought  how  interesting  would  be  a  vivid  and  detailed 
account  of  the  daily  life  of  an  early  New  England 
settler  like  those  who  first  came  here.  What  time  did 
he  get  up  in  the  morning,  and  what  kind  of  a  bed 
had  he  been  occupying  and  where  did  he  get  it  ?  How 
did  he  know  what  time  it  was?  What  kind  of  clothes 
did  he  and  the  other  members  of  the  family  respective- 
ly put  on,  and  how  were  they  procured?  Were  his 
boots  ever  blacked,  if  so  how?  How  was  the  morning 
fire  lighted  in  the  fireplace,  how  was  the  breakfast 
cooked,  of  what  did  it  consist,  either  food  or  drink, 
and  how  was  it  cooked  and  how  served,  with  what 
implements  did  he  carry  it  to  his  mouth?  Wliat  were 
the  dishes  and  where  did  he  get  them?  What  other 
furniture  was  in  the  house ;  and  was  the  table  a  simple 
narrow  bench,  and  were  the  family  ranged  along  upon 
rough  boards  as  sometimes  now  is  done  at  picnic 
gatherings?  What  was  the  nature  of  the  implements 
he  used  in  clearing  the  woods  and  tilling  the  soil  and 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  53 

where  did  he  get  them  and  how  eonld  he  get  the  money 
with  which  to  pay  for  them?  Could  he  afford  an 
overcoat  ?  In  a  cloudy  day  when  the  sun  did  not  shine 
how  could  his  wife  tell  when  to  get  dinner,  and  how 
could  he  tell  when  to  come  and  eat  it?  and  so  on. 
And  when  the  day's  work  was  over  and  evening  came, 
how  was  the  house  lighted;  and  did  the  family  retire 
early,  or  did  they  sit  up  around  some  blazing  fire  or 
light ;  and  if  they  sat  up  was  it  that  they  might  work ; 
did  they  work  in  the  long  evenings,  if  so  what  work 
did  they  do?  Did  the  settlers  have  any  recreations, 
if  so  what  were  they?  How  did  the  young  people 
amuse  themselves,  for  they  certainly  must  have  played  ? 
Youth  will  smile  and  play,  whatever  be  the  circum- 
stances. Did  the  women  have  "sewing  bees"  in  those 
days,  if  they  did  was  the  conversation  upon  religion, 
or  upon  current  topics  after  the  manner  of  a  current 
topic  club  of  the  present  day?  These  and  a  thousand 
other  questions  arise  as  one  contemplates  the  life  of 
the  early  settlers.  More  than  seventy  years  ago  Rufus 
Choate,  in  an  address  to  an  Essex  County  organization, 
said  that  the  best  way  to  give  the  people  a  vivid  idea 
of  those  matters  was  by  way  of  novels  which  should 
be  true  to  the  subject  in  all  the  essential  details;  and 
in  his  characteristically  extravagant  way  he  sug- 
gested that  a  thousand  of  them  more  or  less  were  need- 
ed for  that  purpose.  Some  have  since  been  published, 
but  more  are  needed. 

We  know  at  least  that  the  life  of  these  settlers  was 
busy  and  laborious.  Children  came  frequently,  families 
were  large,  the  domestic  duties  of  the  wife  were  ex- 
acting and  continuous,  and  at  forty  she  looked  worn 
and  weary.     Sometimes  the  settler  was  so  busy  that 


54  MATTAPOISETT 

lie  had  but  little  time  for  preliminaries,  and  made  his 
wishes  known  in  a  brusque  manner.  An  instance  of  this 
has  come  down  traditionally  to  us  and  is  related  in  the 
town  history  in  this  way: — "Old  Deacon  Barlow,  one 
of  the  first  proprietors  to  lay  out  land,  was  famous 
in  his  day  as  a  deacon,  pillar  of  the  church  and  leader 
in  society.  It  is  said  that  when  the  wife  of  Deacon 
Barlow  died,  he  mourned  her  with  due  propriety  for  a 
year  and  a  day.  Then  mounting  his  horse,  he  rode  to 
the  house  of  a  maiden  lady,  and  having  knocked  with 
his  cane  without  dismounting,  he  greeted  her  -with 
'Good  morning,  I  am  in  pursuit  of  a  wife;  if  you  will 
have  me,  I  will  come  in,  if  not,  I  shall  go  farther.' 
'Why  Deacon,'  was  the  reply,  'How  you  astonish  me; 
Thank  j^ou,  you  had  better  come  in. '  A  few  days  later 
there  was  a  wedding,  and  the  deacon  took  his  new  wife 
home  on  a  pillion  behind  him."  Such  were  the  men, 
and  such  the  women  of  the  time. 

Under  it  all  and  through  it  all  there  was  a  strong  re- 
ligious current.  They  lived  not  for  this  life  alone, 
but  for  another  and  a  better.  Their  faith  was  un- 
faltering and  they  were  cheered  and  sustained  by  it. 
They  believed  the  Bible  was  the  word  of  God,  and 
they  read  it  as  such.  I  have  not  the  time  to  sketch 
in  detail  their  religious  history.  You  will  find  it  well 
set  forth  in  the  book  to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  I 
commend  it  to  your  careful  consideration.  A  few 
words  on  that  subject  must  answer.  The  whole  of 
Rochester  for  many  years  was  comprised  in  one  pre- 
cinct, the  people  first  worshipping  at  Sippican  and 
afterwards  at  the  centre  of  the  town,  the  church  ed- 
ifice being  nearly  if  not  quite  five  miles  from  the  early 
settlers  of  Mattapoisett.     Thus  things  continued  until 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  55 

1733  when  the  people  of  Mattapoisett  complained  that 
they  were  too  remote  from  the  centre  to  attend  church 
there,  and  asked  to  be  set  off  as  a  separate  parish. 
"The  matter  was  delayed  for  a  while,  during  which  an 
effort  was  made  to  have  Mattapoisett  incorporated  as 
a  separate  town.  But  tliis  did  not  meet  the  general 
wishes  of  the  people  and  in  1735  (more  than  fifty  years 
after  the  first  settlers  came  here)  the  Second  Precinct 
of  Rochester  was  set  off,"  and  in  1736,  having  ob- 
tained a  letter  of  dismissal  from  the  church  at  the 
"Centre,"  the  Mattapoisett  people  formed  a  new 
church,  and  built  a  small  meeting  house  about  25  feet 
square  in  what  is  now  called  Hammondtown ;  and,  after 
some  experience  in  hearing  other  preachers,  finally  in 
1740  settled  the  Rev.  Ivory  Hovey  as  their  first  pastor. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard  and  at  the  time  of  his 
installation  was  twenty-six  years  old,  recently  married, 
and  is  described  as  "of  slight  physique  and  of  studious 
and  serious  mind." 

There  is  in  the  Athenaeum  in  Boston  a  sermon  which 
was  delivered  by  this  clerg\Tiian  in  1749,  he  being  then 
35  years  of  age.  It  was  delivered  at  the  funeral  of 
John  Hammond,  one  of  the  settlers  of  1680,  who  died 
in  his  86th.  year.  He  was  for  many  years  prominent 
in  the  civil  and  military  affairs  of  the  town ;  and  I  think 
I  can  give  you  no  better  idea  of  the  religious  atmos- 
phere of  the  time  and  of  the  nature  of  the  sermons 
then  preached  then  to  give  a  synopsis  of  this  one.  Its 
title  is  "Duty  &  Privilege  of  Ancient  saints  to  leave 
their  dying  testimony  behind  them  to  posterity.  A  ser- 
mon occasioned  by  the  death  of  Lieut.  John  Hammond 
of  Rochester." 

It  seems  that  Mr.  Hammond,  a  few  months  before  his 


56  MATTAPOISETT 

death,  had  called  his  children  together  to  give  thera 
some  spiritual  advice  which  was  afterwards  embodied 
in  this  sermon ;  and  for  that  reason  his  children  caused 
the  sermon  to  be  published. 

The  text,  which  was  evidently  selected  with  care  and 
was  apt,  is  found  in  Psalm  71.  Verse  18.  "Now  also 
when  I  am  old  and  gray  headed,  0  God,  forsake  me 
not,  until  I  have  showed  thy  strength  unto  this  genera- 
tion and  thy  power  to  every  one  that  is  to  come." 

The  very  first  sentence  contains  the  key  note  of  the 
sermon  which  is  strongly  tinctured  with  the  gloomy 
theology  of  the  time.  It  reads  as  follows: — "There  can 
scarcely  be  a  more  pleasing  sight  under  Heaven  than  to 
see  an  aged  saint  with  the  Almond  tree  flourishing,  that 
has  begun  early  in  the  service  of  God,  even  to  trust  him 
from  his  youth  and  still  in  the  strength  going  on  put- 
ting his  entire  confidence  in  the  same  Almighty  God 
in  advanced  years  and  breathing  out  this  earnest  wish 
&  desire  into  the  bosom  of  his  God,  not  to  cast  him 
off  in  the  time  of  old  age  nor  forsake  Mm  until  he  has 
showed  abroad  the  wondrous  acts  of  the  Lord,"  etc. 
After  a  few  more  sentences  in  this  vein  the  preacher 
announces  the  doctrinal  truth  of  the  sermon  in  these 
words :  ' '  That  it  well  becomes  an  aged  saint  especially 
to  desire  the  continuance  of  his  life  and  God's  further 
assisting  grace  with  him  for  this  end  principally,  that 
he  may  make  known  the  Lord  to  the  present  and  suc- 
ceeding generations, 

OR  THIS 

That  it  well  becomes  an  aged  disciple  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
&  will  be  the  property  of  all  such  who  have  walked 
with  God  in  their  youth  to  seek  earnestly  the  Commun- 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  57 

ion  and  special  presence  of  the  same  God  with  them 
to  their  lives'  end,  that  they  may  be  enabled  to  leave 
their  dying  testimony  behind  them  from  God  to  their 
posterity. ' ' 

He  then  proceeds  thus,  ''For  the  clearing  of  this 
doctrine  I  would  endeavor  by  divine  assistance,  first  to 
explain  it,  second  to  confirm  it,  and  lastly  to  improve 
it."  Under  the  first  head  he  has  two  sub-divisions,  un- 
der the  second  head  four,  and  under  the  third  head 
three,  of  which  the  third  is  further  subdivided  into  two 
parts,  making  in  all  eleven  divisions.  After  spending 
considerable  time  in  thus  developing  the  doctrinal  truth, 
he  proceeds  to  address  the  aged  widow  (who  was  the 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Arnold  the  first  minister 
of  Rochester)  in  these  words :  "As  to  you,  his  aged  con- 
sort in  particular,  who  was  best  of  all  acquainted  with 
him  &  to  whom  he  was  a  very  tender  &  kind 
husband,  however  he  might  bear  some  resemblance  to 
Eli  as  for  a  hasty  temper,  yet  I  doubt  not  but  you  are 
a  witness  that  he  likewise  resembled  him  and  some 
other  saints  in  some  of  their  virtues,  especially  as  he 
grew  towards  the  evening  of  his  life;  particularly  in 
the  graces  of  humility,  meekness,  self  denial  & 
patience  which  he  seemed  to  be  most  sensible  of  being 
defective  in  according  to  his  aforesaid  constitutional 
infirmity,  which  occasioned  him  often  to  pray  hard  for 
patience  &  others'  prayers  that  patience  might  have 
its  perfect  work  in  him,  which  prayer  seemed  remark- 
ably answered  on  his  behalf  before  his  departure  as  you 
madam  can't  but  be  very  sensible  of." 

Who  cannot  see  in  these  lines  the  picture  of  the  grand 
old  man,  naturally  quick  tempered  and  fully  aware  of 
that  fact,  striving  under  the  trials  incidental  to  the 


58  MATTAPOISETT 

infirmities  of  old  age  to  conquer  himself  and  by  the 
divine  assistance  to  be  patient  to  the  end.  Of  such  fibre 
were  such  men  made. 

After  still  further  words  directed  to  the  aged  widow, 
the  speaker  proceeds  at  considerable  length  to  repeat 
in  detail  the  advice  the  deceased  had  given  to  his 
children,  making  extensive  comments  thereon,  and 
directly  addressing  the  children  in  a  manner  similar  to 
that  in  which  he  had  addressed  the  widow. 

The  sermon  consists  of  thirty-three  closely  printed 
pages,  and  must  have  occupied  more  than  an  hour  and  a 
half  in  its  delivery.  It  is  a  typical  specimen  of  the 
pulpit  production  of  the  time. 

I  can  dwell  no  longer  upon  these  early  settlers.  They 
were  chiefly  engaged  in  agriculture  pursuits,  and  were 
an  industrious  and  God-fearing  people. 

Less  than  a  century  after  the  settlement,  the  troubles 
began  between  the  colony  and  the  mother  country 
which  finally  resulted  in  the  Revolution  and  our  in- 
dependence. Rochester  did  its  full  part  in  these  events. 
As  indicating  their  spirit  I  will  cite  two  or  three  votes 
passed  by  the  people  in  town  meeting  assembled. 

In  1768,  suspecting  one  of  their  representatives  of 
holding  Tory  sentiments,  the  town  voted  as  follows: 
' '  That  if  our  representative  or  any  other  person  in  this 
town  that  either  has  or  shall  hereafter  basely  desert 
the  cause  of  liberty  for  the  sake  of  being  promoted  to 
a  post  of  honor  or  profit  or  for  any  other  mean  view 
to  self  interest  shall  be  looked  upon  as  an  enemy  to 
his  country  &  be  treated  with  that  neglect  &  con- 
tempt that  he  justly  deserves."  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  the  representative  was  not  re-elected. 

In  1773  a  letter  was  received  from  Boston  asking  the 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  59 

advice  of  the  towns  as  to  what  was  to  be  done  on  the 
tea  question.  A  spirited  town  meeting  was  held.  En- 
ergetic resolutions  were  passed,  and  "the  citizens  sub- 
scribed a  solemn  league  and  covenant  to  abstain  from 
the  use  of  tea,  and  to  transact  no  business  with  those 
who  will  not  become  parties  to  the  covenant."  This  is 
pretty  close  to  a  boycott,  and  so  far  as  I  know  is  the 
first  example  of  a  provision  for  a  "closed  shop"  to  be 
found  in  the  records  of  the  town. 

The  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington,  April  19,  1775, 
was  received  with  joy  since  it  indicated  that  the 
struggle  for  independence  was  really  begun.  On  May 
23,  1776,  it  was  voted,  "That  when  the  honorable  con- 
gress shall  think  best  to  declare  themselves  independent 
of  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain  we  will  defend  them 
with  our  lives  &  fortunes." 

When  army  reverses  had  brought  a  feeling  of  de- 
pression and  it  was  necessary  to  suppress  any  opposi- 
tion to  the  war,  a  committee  of  inspectors  was  formed 
to  call  to  account  those  who  uttered  Tory  sentiments. 
One  of  those  with  whom  they  dealt  had  said  that  "He 
wished  the  people  of  Rochester  were  in  hell  for  their 
treatment  of  Ruggles  &  Sprague, "  but  on  his  expressing 
repentance  he  was  duly  forgiven. 

When  the  paper  money  which  had  been  issued  by 
the  government  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  war  had 
become  greatly  depreciated,  the  town  on  May  26,  1779, 
after  certain  resolves  relating  "to  efforts  to  appreciate 
the  currency"  had  been  passed,  voted  that  "Whoever 
shall  directly  or  indirectly  violate  either  of  said  resolves 
made  for  this  important  purpose  shall  be  deemed  in- 
famous and  held  up  to  view  as  an  enemy  to  the  in- 
dependence, freedom  &  happiness  of  his  country  by 


60  MATTAPOISETT 

publishing  his  name  in  the  newspapers  published  in  this 
state,  after  which  publication  it  shall  be  disrespectful 
in  any  good  citizen  to  maintain  either  social  or  com- 
mercial connections  with  a  wretch  so  lost  to  all  public 
virtue  as  wantonly  to  sacrifice  the  interest  of  his  coun- 
try to  the  acquisition  of  a  little  paltry  gain. ' '  This  was  a 
boycott  with  a  vengeance.  They  did  not  stop  with  resolu- 
tions. Early,  and  during  the  whole  existence  of  the  war 
Rochester  did  its  full  part,  and  Mattapoisett  as  a  part 
of  Rochester,  in  furnishing  and  equipping  its  due  quota 
of  fighting  men. 

As  early  as  1750  and  perhaps  before  that  time  they 
began  to  build  vessels.  It  is  stated  by  "Wilson  Barstow, 
whom  I  have  previously  mentioned,  that  there  was  no 
science,  vessels  being  built  "by  the  sight  of  the  eye 
and  good  judgment. ' '  There  was  no  preliminary  draft- 
ing and  there  were  no  models.  Queer  results  were 
sometimes  produced  by  this  method.  Mr.  Barstow 
states  that  "one  Hastings  was  put  in  a  towering  pas- 
sion by  being  told  that  his  starboard  bow  was  all  on  one 
side;  and  one  sloop  was  nicknamed  'Bowline'  because 
she  was  crooked."  It  is  further  said  that  "the  old 
whaler  Trident  of  488  tons  built  in  1828,  was  so  much 
out  of  true  that  she  carried  150  barrels  more  on  one 
side  of  the  keel  than  on  the  other.  The  sailors  said 
she  was  '  logey  on  one  tack  but  sailed  like  the  mischief 
on  the  other.'  "  Of  course  in  due  time  all  this  was 
corrected  and  vessels  were  built  upon  a  scientific  model. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  the 
village  of  Mattapoisett  was  started,  and  in  1815  there 
was  at  Mattapoisett  harbor,  a  thriving  village  consisting 
of  "perhaps  40  houses,  3  or  4  wharves,  a  rope  walk  and 
ship  yards  where   in  1811  upwards  of  3,000  tons  of 


^EMI-CENTENNIAL  61 

shipping,  were  constructed."  There  was  a  coasting 
trade  between  the  town  and  Nantucket,  Newport,  New 
York  and  places  farther  south. 

The  building  of  ships  continued  for  many  years,  and 
that  business  and  whaling  constituted  the  chief  in- 
dustries of  the  town.  Notice,  however,  must  be  taken 
of  the  manufacture  of  salt.  During  the  Kevolution,  salt 
had  been  in  great  demand,  and  some  was  obtained  along 
the  shore  of  Buzzard's  Bay  by  the  process  of  boiling 
sea  water.  In  1806  a  more  important  salt  industry  was 
established  in  Rochester  as  well  as  in  the  neighboring 
towns.  The  direct  cause  of  this  was  the  Embargo  Act 
shutting  out  the  salt  from  the  West  Indies,  which  had 
been  the  chief  source  of  supply.  Abraham  Holmes, 
writing  in  1821,  says,  "The  principal  manufacture  of 
this  town  is  salt.  This  business  is  carried  on  on  an  ex- 
tensive scale,  and  it  is  believed  that  more  salt  is  manu- 
factured in  this  town  than  in  any  other  town  in  the 
Commonwealth ;  and  it  is  the  most  productive  of  any 
business  here  practiced." 

The  water  was  pumped  from  the  sea  by  windmills 
and  carried  through  the  pipes  (or  tunnelled  logs)  to 
shallow  vats  12  or  15  feet  square,  from  which  the  water 
was  evaporated  by  sun  exposure,  being  carried  from 
vat  to  vat  at  different  stages  of  the  process.  There  was 
a  salt  house  to  receive  the  completed  product,  and  at 
night  and  in  rainy  weather  great  covers  or  roofs  moved 
by  heavy  crane  beams  were  placed  over  the  vats  to 
protect  the  drying  salt.  One  crane  usually  moved  the 
roof  of  four  of  these  vats.  I  well  remember  salt  works 
of  this  description  existing  when  I  was  a  boy.  on  Good- 
speed's  Island.  They  were  managed  by  Mr.  Jabez 
Goodspeed,  and  I  have  often  seen  him,  when  a  tempest 


62  MATTAPOISETT 

threatened,  hurry  over  to  the  island  to  cover  the  vats 
so  as  to  protect  the  salt  from  the  rain. 

The  town  of  Rochester,  especially  the  villages  of 
Mattapoisett  and  Marion,  continued  to  flourish,  but 
there  was  a  cloud  upon  the  horizon.  These  two  vil- 
lages were  at  considerable  distance  from  the  town 
house  located  at  Rochester  Centre;  and  it  was  a  great 
inconvenience  for  their  inhabitants  to  go  to  the  Centre 
to  vote  and  transact  town  affairs;  and  the  interests  of 
these  villages  were  in  many  respects  different  from 
those  of  the  mother  town.  The  birth  throes  of  Matta- 
poisett were  severe  and  prolonged.  They  began  in 
1837  and  lasted  twenty  years.  The  account  of  the 
events  which  led  to  the  final  separation,  as  given  in 
the  book  which  I  have  named,  is  exceedingly  interest- 
ing. The  sixteenth  article  of  the  town  meeting  of 
March  6,  1837  was  as  follows,  "To  decide  if  the  town 
will  hold  their  town  meetings  in  Mattapoisett  village 
for  the  term  of  one  year  from  the  twentieth  of  March. 
1837."  On  this  article  it  was  voted  after  an  exciting 
contest  that  "When  this  meeting  be  adjourned  it  be 
adjourned  to  the  First  Christian  Meeting  House  in 
Mattapoisett  village,  and  that  all  the  town  meetings 
be  held  in  the  village  of  Mattapoisett  for  one  year  from 
the  20th  day  of  March,  1837."  "Mr.  James  Ruggles 
of  Rochester  Centre  then  arose  and  gave  notice  that 
he  protested  against  the  vote  in  regard  to  holding  town 
meetings  in  the  village  of  Mattapoisett  and  should  call 
for  a  reconsideration  of  that  vote  at  the  adjournment 
of  this  meeting."  The  adjourned  meeting  was  held 
April  3,  1837,  in  the  First  Christian  Meeting  House  of 
Mattapoisett,  and  was  the  first  town  meeting  ever  held 
in  the  confines  of  Mattapoisett.     At  the  meeting  the 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  63 

Rev,  Thomas  Robbins  offered  prayer;  and  after  a 
spirited  contest  it  was  found  that  the  vote  to  reconsider 
was  carried  by  three  majority,  the  vote  in  favor  being 
299,  that  opposed  296.  The  method  of  taking  the  vote 
was  peculiar.  All  those  that  were  in  favor  of  recon- 
sidering the  vote  formed  a  line  on  the  north  side  of  the 
street,  and  those  opposed  on  the  south  side.  Certain- 
ly a  picturesque  way  of  taking  a  vote  at  a  town  meet- 
ing. But  the  redoubtable  Captain  Atsatt  of  Matta- 
poisett  was  equal  to  the  occasion ;  he  rose  and  gave 
notice  that  at  the  adjournment  of  this  meeting  he 
should  call  for  a  reconsideration  of  this  last  vote.  The 
meeting  was  adjourned  till  April  17th.  Dr.  Robbins 
states  in  his  diary  that  although  he  attended  this  meet- 
ing he  did  not  vote.  It  seemed  to  him  "an  unpleasant 
affair."  On  April  17th,  the  day  to  which  the  meeting 
had  been  adjourned,  Captain  Atsatt  made  his  motion 
for  reconsideration  and  for  adjournment  to  Matta- 
poisett.  The  vote  was  taken  by  yea  and  nay.  Each 
side  was  out  in  full  force,  and  crackers  and  cheese  were 
provided  for  the  voters.  The  house  was  so  crowded 
the  vote  could  not  be  taken  there,  and,  after  various 
attempts  had  failed,  the  doors  were  shut  upon  the 
older  men  within  the  house  whose  ballots  were  then 
taken  as  they  came  out  through  the  door;  while  the 
younger  men  were  sent  through  the  bars  into  Mr. 
Bonney's  field  and  the  votes  taken  as  they  came  out. 
The  motion  was  lost,  278  yeas  to  324  nays.  At  this 
meeting  Rev.  Dr.  Robbins  voted,  the  only  time  he  had 
ever  voted  in  town  meeting  since  his  settlement.  This 
meeting  was  further  adjourned  to  April  24th  at  one 
P.  M.  "When  the  day  came,"  writes  Mr.  Holmes, 
"before  nine  o'clock  a  northeast  storm    (very  cold) 


64  MATTAPOISETT 

commenced,  which  increased  in  its  fury  and  by  noon 
was  pretty  violent.  Very  few  people  from  the  North- 
west part  of  the  town  attended,  but  the  people  of 
Mattapoisett  had  a  considerable  turnout."  Captain 
Atsatt,  still  persistent,  was  again  on  hand  and  made  a 
motion,  which  was  seconded  by  Elijah  Willis,  "to  ad- 
journ this  meeting  to  the  Rev.  Thos.  Robbins's  meet- 
ing house  in  the  village  of  Mattapoisett,  Wednesday, 
the  26th  day  of  April,  at  one  o'clock  P.  M."  The  vote 
passed  by  139  to  137.  Mattapoisett  was  again  upper- 
most, and  the  meeting  was  finally  held  at  Mattapoisett. 

There  is  not  time  for  me  to  enter  into  this  matter 
in  further  detail.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  after  various 
contests  it  finally  became  evident  to  all  that  there 
should  be  a  division;  and  at  a  town  meeting  held 
early  in  1857  a  vote  for  this  division  was  unanimous. 
Committees  were  appointed  to  arrange  details  as  to 
the  division  of  town  property,  etc. ;  and  on  May  20, 
1857,  the  act  of  incorporation  was  passed  by  the  legis- 
lature. 

The  new  town  of  Mattapoisett  then  contained  about 
1,700  inhabitants.  Its  chief  industries  of  shipbuilding 
and  whaling  were  perhaps  then  at  their  zenith.  Many 
of  the  young  men  of  the  village  entered  with  zest  into 
the  business  of  whaling  and  became  skillful  ship- 
masters. Those  who  engaged  in  this  were  away  from 
home  the  greater  part  of  the  time,  the  voyages  lasting 
from  a  year,  more  or  less,  to  three  or  four  years. 
Their  stay  at  home  between  voyages  was  generally 
from  two  to  four  months  in  the  summer.  I  remember 
hearing  a  woman,  who  had  been  married  for  more  than 
twenty-five  years  to  a  well-known  ship-master,  say 
that  her  husband  had  been  away  from  home  so  much 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  65 

of  the  time  that  she  scarcely  felt  acquainted  with  him. 

It  was  a  dangerous  business.  The  whales  were  killed 
by  harpoons  and  lances  thrown  from  the  hands  of  men 
in  boats.  Many  an  evening  when  a  boy  have  I  listened 
to  the  tales  of  these  men — of  the  manner  in  which  the 
whale  was  first  sighted  by  the  man  on  the  lookout  on 
the  mast — of  the  hurried  preparation  for  the  manning 
and  starting  of  the  boats,  of  which  there  were  from  two 
to  four  according  to  the  number  of  the  crew — of  the 
long  pull,  sometimes  in  a  boisterous  sea,  to  reach  the 
Leviathan — of  the  hush  in  the  boat  as  they  came  near  tlie 
whale — of  the  anxious  moment  when  he  who  held  the 
harpoon  was  to  throw  it — of  the  sudden  plunge  of  the 
animal  as  he  felt  the  iron  enter  his  side — of  the  impera- 
tive order  to  "stern  all,"  given  to  avoid  injury  from 
any  violent  movement  of  the  whale — of  the  rapidity 
with  which  the  line  attached  to  the  harpoon  passed 
out  from  the  tub  where  in  the  middle  of  the  boat  it  was 
neatly  coiled — of  the  careful  manner  of  slowing  the 
line  as  it  went  out — of  the  attempt  to  reach  the  whale 
again  as  he  rose  to  the  surface — of  the  skillful  way 
in  which  the  boat  was  again  placed  alongside  of  the 
whale  and  of  the  deep  reaching  thrusts  given  by  the 
lance  in  the  hands  of  the  boatheader — of  the  circular 
death  flurry  growing  gradually  more  and  more  feeble 
— the  reddening  of  the  water  from  the  outpouring 
blood — and  finally  the  death  of  the  animal  as  he  at 
last  turned  over  upon  his  back. 

Upon  the  stones  in  our  village  graveyard  may  be 
read  records  of  the  dangers  incurred  by  these  hardy 
followers  of  the  sea.  Of  my  mother's  five  brothers 
three  lost  their  lives  in  this  business — two,  both  in  the 
same  vessel,  by  the  foundering  of  their  ship,  and  one 


66  MATTAPOISETT 

by  being  caught  in  the  line  as  the  whale  was  dragging 
it  from  the  boat.  Subsequently  whales  were  shot  by 
a  gun,  greatly  diminishing  the  danger. 

Shortly  after  the  incorporation  of  the  town,  this 
business  began  to  diminish  and  has  been  for  several 
years  entirely  discontinued  in  Mattapoisett. 

The  shipbuilding  filled  the  village  with  a  very  supe- 
rior class  of  workmen.  In  the  busiest  period  nearly 
three  hundred  men  were  employed ;  and  at  the  noon 
hour  the  streets  were  filled  with  them  as  they  went 
home  for  dinner.  Each  man  was  entitled  to  the  chips 
which  he  hewed  from  the  timber,  and  many  a  workman 
on  his  way  home  trundled  before  him  a  well-filled 
wheelbarrow.  But  this  industry  has  also  disappeared, 
and  with  it  has  disappeared  the  noble  mechanics  who 
were  nurtured  in  it.     The  last  vessel  was  built  in  1878. 

There  were  no  summer  vacations.  The  people  kept 
at  home  from  one  year's  end  to  another.  The  young 
men  generally  became  ship  carpenters  or  sailors.  The 
young  women  stayed  at  home;  and  the  young  of  both 
sexes  found  their  amusements  in  their  native  village. 
Although  I  was  born  in  this  village  and  lived  here 
until  at  the  age  of  nineteen  I  went  away  to  school,  and 
although  I  spent  my  vacations  here  and  cast  my  first  vote 
here,  I  never  saw  the  village  of  Sippican,  now  Marion, 
until  I  was  more  than  forty  years  old.  There  was  but 
little  card  playing  as  I  remember.  My  first  card  play- 
ing was  clandestine,  under  an  upturned  whaleboat 
which  had  been  beached  for  the  winter. 

There  were  three  churches — the  Congregational  the 
one  in  which  we  now  are,  the  Universalist  and  the 
Baptist.  Every  Sunday  there  were  preached  in  each 
church  two  sermons,  one  in  the  forenoon  and  one  in 


O    H 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  67 

the  afternoon ;  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  Universal- 
ist  church,  there  was  also  a  meeting  in  the  evening  at 
which  the  pastor  usually  made  a  short  address.  Each 
church  had  a  flourishing  Sabbath  school.  There  was 
little,  if  any,  social  caste.  Everj'body  knew  everj'body 
else  and  was  quite  closely  watched  by  everybody  else, — 
a  state  of  things  quite  conducive  to  upright  living. 

Much  cannot  be  said  in  favor  of  the  public  schools 
as  they  existed  in  the  village.  Provision  was  made  for 
onl}'  three  months  for  each  child.  The  children  under 
ten  years  of  age  attended  the  summer  school,  and  those 
of  ten  and  upwards  the  winter  school.  When  the  first 
public  winter  school  I  ever  attended  was  opened,  I  was 
about  two  weeks  short  of  ten  years  of  age,  and  I  well 
remember  the  trepidation  with  which  I  appeared  the 
first  day.  I  feared  I  should  not  be  admitted,  but  the 
district  school  committee  man  and  the  teacher  after 
some  conference  together  concluded  that  I  "would  do." 
As  a  rule  there  was  a  different  teacher  for  each  term, — 
a  man,  often  some  college  undergraduate,  in  the  winter, 
and  a  woman  in  the  summer.  Corporal  punishment 
was  frequently  resorted  to,  although  I  do  not  recall 
any  severe  case.  The  school  rooms,  often  small,  were 
heated  with  stoves;  there  was  no  ventilation,  and  the 
small  children  who  sat  in  the  front  seats  suffered  much 
from  the  heat.  The  village  proper  was  divided  into 
two  districts,  the  east  and  the  west;  and  in  the  winter 
time,  when  there  was  snow  upon  the  ground  fit  for 
snowballs,  many  a  royal  battle  occurred  between  the 
two  schools;  and  woe  be  to  the  pupil  of  either  school 
if  during  snowballing  time  he  was  espied  within  the 
territorial  limits  of  the  other. 

The  public  schools  were  supplemented  by  private 


68  MATTAPOISETT 

schools  at  which  a  small  tuition  fee  was  charged. 
There  was  generally  such  a  school  every  summer  which 
pupils  too  old  for  the  public  schools  could  attend. 
Many  of  these  schools  were  very  good.  About  1856 
the  academy  was  opened,  to  which  came  pupils  not 
only  from  the  village  and  the  other  parts  of  the  town, 
but  also  from  the  neighboring  towns.  The  higher 
studies  were  taught  here,  and  by  this  school  several 
persons  were  fitted  for  college. 

In  an  address  on  Mattapoisett,  no  one  can  omit  to 
speak  of  the  alewives  of  Mattapoisett  river.  Prom  the 
time  of  the  earliest  settlers  to  the  present  day  they  have 
contributed  to  the  wealth  of  the  people.  The  people  of 
the  colonial  and  provincial  periods  of  Massachusetts 
appreciated  the  food  value  of  alewives,  and  many  laws 
were  passed  for  the  protection  of  the  alewife  fisheries 
wherever  existing,  especially  on  streams  where  there 
were  milldams.  Mattapoisett  River  received  its  full 
share  of  attention.  The  early  Plymouth  Colony  laws 
were  liberal  in  the  count,  for  it  was  provided  in  1637 
that  "six  score  and  twelve  fishes  shall  be  accounted  to 
the  hundred  of  all  sorts  of  fishes."  The  earliest  law 
I  have  found  especially  applicable  to  Mattapoisett  River 
was  passed  in  November  1770.  The  preamble  is  as 
follows : 

"Whereas  the  town  of  Rochester  have  been  at  great 
labor  and  expense  in  digging  out  a  passage  from  Snip- 
tuet  Pond  to  the  head  of  'Madepaysett'  River  in  said 
town,  in  order  to  let  the  alewives  have  free  course  from 
the  sea  into  said  pond  to  cast  their  spawn ;  and  whereas 
the  good  fruit  of  their  labors  and  expense  depends  on 
the  regulation  and  government  of  the  stream  through 
which    they  pass,    and   there    being   sundry  milldams 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  69 

across  said  river,  and  by  reason  of  many  evilminded 
and  disorderly  persons  setting  up  weirs,  stopping  & 
obstructing  sd  alewives,  the  expectation  &  benefit  of 
their  labors  have  almost  been  defeated;  for  remedy 
whereof  be  it  enacted,  &c. ' '  This  act  was  followed  hy 
several  others  and  there  were  at  least  six  statutes 
passed  after  the  establishment  of  the  state  constitution, 
of  which  the  first  was  passed  in  1788.  There  is  not 
time  to  review  these  acts  in  detail.  It  is  sufficient  to 
say  that  they  provide  for  the  free  passage  of  the  fish, 
for  the  times  in  which  fish  may  be  taken  and  by  whom ; 
for  the  choice  in  open  town  meeting  of  herring  inspec- 
tors who  shall  take  an  oath  to  ''prosecute  all  breaches 
of  the  law  regulating  the  alewife  fishery  in  said  river"; 
and  for  the  sale  and  distribution  of  the  fish,  and  for  the 
prosecution  of  persons  who  shall  unlawfully  catch  them 
or  obstruct  their  passage.  The  right  to  these  fish  has 
always  been  greatly  prized,  even  to  an  extent  which 
may  seem  inexplicable  to  a  person  who  has  not  been 
reared  in  the  town.  The  statute  of  1852  setting  off 
Sippican  and  incorporating  it  under  the  name  of  Marion 
contains  a  provision,  although  no  part  of  Mattapoisett 
River  flowed  through  the  new  town,  "that  the  alewife 
fisheries  of  the  river  and  the  town  mills  on  the  river 
should  remain  the  property  and  privilege  of  all  the  in- 
habitants of  said  towns  of  Rochester  and  Marion,  and 
said  alewives  shall  be  sold,  as  now,  to  each  and  every 
family  residing  in  the  towns  aforesaid,  at  such  price  per 
hundred  as  the  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of  said 
towns  should  from  time  to  time  determine;"  and  the 
net  profits  were  to  be  divided  among  the  towns  accord- 
ing to  their  respective  valuations ;  and  the  statutes  of 
1857  which  set  off  Mattapoisett  contained  a  similar  pro- 


70  MATTAPOISETT 

vision  for  the  distribution  of  the  alewives  among  the 
inhabitants  of  the  three  towns  of  Rochester,  Marion 
and  Mattapoisett.  All  the  other  town  property  could 
be  divided,  but  each  town  held  with  a  firm  grip  upon 
the  alewives,  and  the  ownership  of  them  must  be  in 
common.  In  each  one  of  those  acts  it  is  also  provided 
that  the  citizens  of  Rochester  should  have  the  same 
privileges  as  before  to  take  shell  and  scale  fish  from 
the  shores,  flats  and  waters  of  the  new  town.  Marion 
could  not  give  up  the  alewives,  nor  could  Rochester  give 
up  the  clams  and  quahaugs,  or  the  "scalefish"  of  the 
harbor. 

This  address  is  already  too  long,  but  I  cannot  refrain 
from  mentioning  one  educational  institution  of  the  town 
— Harlow  &  LeBaron's  store.  It  was  a  country  variety 
store  of  the  usual  kind,  where  one  could  buy  anything 
from  a  stick  of  candy  to  a  gallon  of  oil,  from  a  spool 
of  thread  to  a  yard  of  cloth.  For  the  men  it  was  the 
educational  society  centre.  I  wish  I  could  make  you 
see  it  as  I,  when  a  boy,  saw  it — the  dark  well-worn 
wooden  floor,  the  groceries  on  one  side  of  the  store  and 
the  dry  goods  on  the  other,  the  small,  cylindrical,  up- 
right cast  iron  stove  sometimes  red  with  heat  on  a  cold 
day,  the  long  wooden  bench  upon  the  grocery  side  of 
the  store — the  row  of  men  seated  thereon,  other  men 
sitting  or  standing  wherever  there  was  opportunity. 
See  this  store,  dimly  lighted  by  one  or  more  oil  lamps 
in  an  evening,  thus  filled  with  the  talkative  and  social 
denizens  of  the  village,  not  loafers,  but  honest,  intelli- 
gent artisans,  every  one  of  them  fit  for  official  responsi- 
bility, and  listen  to  the  way  in  which  any  question  for 
the  time  being  prominent,  whether  of  town,  state  or 
national  importance,  is  discussed,  and  you  will  under- 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  71 

stand  what  I  mean  when  I  say  it  was  an  educational 
institution.  Many  an  evening  have  I,  when  a  boy. 
listened  with  rapt  attention  to  those  discussions,  and 
many  a  time  when  in  after  years  it  fell  to  me  to  address 
a  jury,  did  I  seem  to  see  before  me  the  very  same  men 
I  had  so  often  seen  in  that  store — their  names  different 
it  is  true,  and  their  faces  not  so  familiar,  but  their 
methods  of  thought  the  same — and  I  knew  better  how 
to  influence  them  than  if  I  had  not  had  the  previous 
experience.  There  is  no  education  more  useful  to  a 
man  who  is  to  move  among  men,  than  that  which  he 
gets  by  mingling  in  the  society  of  a  country  store  in 
an  old-fashioned  New  England  village. 

There  is  no  time  to  speak  here  of  those  who  have 
gone  out  from  this  town  to  professions  and  other  pur- 
suits, but  the  occasion  makes  it  proper  for  me  to  speak 
of  one  who  was  one  of  the  prominent  actors  in  the  prep- 
aration for  this  week,  and  who  has  not  been  permitted 
to  live  to  enjoy  the  festivities  he  had  helped  to  plan. 
Lemuel  LeBaron  Holmes,  cut  off  in  the  prime  of  life, 
was  a  typical  specimen  of  the  best  blood  of  New  Eng- 
land. Of  fine  personal  appearance,  with  a  frank  open 
countenance  and  expressive  eyes,  mild  and  unassuming 
yet  reserved  in  manner,  he  from  the  very  first  favor- 
ably impressed  all  who  met  him.  As  a  man  he  was 
kind  and  true  in  all  family  relations,  a  staunch  reliable 
friend  and  a  good  citizen.  Ready  to  yield  in  non-es- 
sentials, but  firm  as  a  rock  where  principle  was  at  stake 
— there  was  Quaker  blood  in  his  veins — he  won  the  re- 
spect and  confidence  of  all.  As  a  lawyer,  he  was 
learned,  painstaking  and  thorough  in  the  investigation 
of  his  client's  case,  and  clear  and  effective  in  present- 
ing it  to  the  court.     He  was  a  safe  adviser.     In  his 


72  MATTAPOISETT 

arguments  to  the  jury  he  never  took  an  unfair  ad- 
vantage of  his  opponent,  never  appealed  to  passion  or 
prejudice,  but  simply  to  reason.  His  judgment  as  to 
where  the  strength  of  his  ease  lay,  and  on  what  lines  it 
should  be  presented  to  the  jury,  was  excellent.  A  per- 
sistent fighter  for  what  he  believed  to  be  right,  he  was 
nevertheless  always  ready  to  settle  upon  a  reasonable 
basis. 

As  a  judge,  he  was  patient,  courteous  and  eminently 
fair.  He  had  a  strong  grasp  of  a  case,  was  sure  to  de- 
tect the  principle  upon  which  the  decision  hinged,  mar- 
shalled well  the  facts ;  and  his  charges  to  the  jury  were 
clear,  apt  and  easily  understood.  He  loved  this,  his 
native  village  and  was  very  much  interested  in  its  local 
history.  He  was  an  honor  to  the  town,  and  to  his  pro- 
fession— both  at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench.  The  death 
of  such  a  man  is  a  loss  to  the  community  and  to  the 
state. 

I  have  thus  touched  upon  some  features  of  our  town 
history.  I  would  like  to  speak  of  others,  especially 
of  the  ecclesiastical  history  and  of  the  part  taken  by 
the  inhabitants  of  the  town  in  the  Civil  War ;  but  these 
must  be  omitted. 

"We  are  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  half  century. 
How  shall  our  town  now  be  described?  I  can  use  no 
better  words  than  those  which  are  found  in  the  book 
from  which  I  have  quoted  so  much.  Here  they  are — 
let  us  read  them  together  and  take  in  their  full  mean- 
ing: 

"So  Mattapoisett  sits  today  on  her  beautiful  open 
harbor:  the  waters  of  Buzzards  Bay  roll  in  as  blue  as 
ever:  the  alewives  still  go  up  the  river  each  April: 
there  is  still  good  fishing  in  the  bay  and  shellfish  on 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  73 

the  shore.  The  catboats  ride  at  their  moorings  around 
the  buoy,  or  their  sails  glisten  in  the  sun  far  out  toward 
the  Falmouth  shore.  The  old  family  names  are  on  the 
narrow  elm  shaded  streets,  and  many  of  the  ancient 
houses  look  upon  them  still.  The  town  is  full  of  pleas- 
ure-seekers who  play  tennis,  golf,  drive,  sail,  or  fish,  or 
dance  at  the  Casino ;  but  there  is  always  the  sense  of 
rest  and  quiet,  the  salt  air  full  of  ozone,  fragrant  breath 
of  the  pines,  and  the  respite  from  city  noise  and  dust. 

And  all  along  the  shore  from  Aucoot  Cove  to  the 
Fairhaven  line,  each  year  sees  some  new  homes  built 
for  those  who  seek  their  rest  in  close  touch  with  nature 
and  old  ocean.  Vacation  and  holiday  are  a  part  of  the 
world's  true  needs,  and  in  lending  its  own  quiet  charms 
to  those  forms  of  human  demand,  this  seaside  village 
has  entered  into  a  new  and  worthy  role,  more  harmoni- 
ous, perhaps,  than  were  the  activities  of  the  past,  with 
the  musical  name  it  carries — Mattapoisett — "the  place 
of  rest."  "The  past  at  least  is  secure."  God  grant 
that  in  the  future,  whatever  may  happen,  the  standard 
set  by  our  ancestors  may  be  proudly  maintained. 


74  MATTAPOISETT 


A    MATTAPOISETT    SONG 


[Tune,   "Fair   Harvard"] 


Mattapoisett,  thy  children  think  ever  of  thee, 

'Though  throughout  the  wide  world  they  may  roam. 
And  wherever  their  fortune  casts  for  them  their  lot, 

They  still  look  to  thee  as  their  home. 
If  where  tropical  suns  beat  down  fierce  on  the  deck, 

They  remember  thy  cool  southwest  winds; 
Or,  on  wide  western  plains,  under  shadowless  skies, 

They  long  for  thy  murmuring  pines. 

Thus,  afar,  their  hearts  turn  to  this  home  of  their  youth, 

To  the  mem'ry  of  figures  now  gone; 
They  recall,  'though  the  thought  brings  a  mist  to  the  eye. 

All  the  charms  which  thy  village  adorn. 
They  remember  thy  shores,  thy  elm-shaded  streets, 

Thy  river  that  runs  to  the  sea. 
And  they  wish  that  the  tide  which  flows  in  from  the  bay 

Might  bear  them  in  joy  back  to  thee. 

Mattapoisett,  thy  children  take  pride  in  thy  past, 

Since  the  Indian  first  sought  thy  strand, 
And  the  settler  invaded  thy  forest's  deep  growth 

And  established  his  hold  on  the  land. 
Oh,  thy  woodsmen  have  hewn,  and  thy  artisans  shaped. 

The  staunch  ships  that  have  slid  from  thy  ways; 
And  thy  captains  have  sailed  into  every  known  sea. 

From  thy  wharves  which  endure  to  these  days. 

So,  whenever  thy  children  may  happen  to  meet. 

Whether  at  home  or  on  far  distant  sea. 
As  they  think  of  Lang  Syne  they  will  join  in  a  song 

To  the  praise,  Mattapoisett,  of  thee. 
And  they'll  offer  the  prayer,  that  in  all  future  time. 

Forever,  while  seasons  shall  come, 
Their  children's  descendants  may  ever  have  this 

Place  of  Rest  as  their  beautiful  home. 

L.  LeB.  D. 
August,  1907. 


The  illustrations  in  this  book  opposite  pages 
33,  38,  42,  55,  60,  66,  68,  71  and  72  are  from 
"  Mattapoisett  and  Old  Rochester,"  and  ai'e  used 
by  courtesy  of  The  Grafton  Press. 


THE     GRAFTON     HISTORICAL    SERIES 
Edited  by  Henry  R.  Stiles,  A.  M.,  M.  D, 

MATTAPOISETT 
AND  OLD  ROCHESTER 

Being  a  History  of  these  towns  and  also  in  part  of  Marion 
and  a  portion  of  Wareham 

BY 

MARY    HALL    LEONARD 
LEMUEL    LeBARON    DEXTER 
LEMUEL    LeBARON    HOLMES 
JAMES    S.    BURBANK 
LESTER    W.    JENNEY 
MARY    FRANCES    BRIGGS 

With    many  valuable    extracts  from  the  records  of  the   Town 

and  of  the  Second   Church   in  Rochester, 

Mattapoisett  Precinct. 

This  is  the  story  of  one  of  the  oldest  of  Massachusetts  towns.  From 
Rochester,  were  set  off  at  various  times,  a  portion  of  Wareham,  and  the 
present  towns  of  Marion  and  Mattapoisett.  The  last  named,  celebrated 
its  50th  Anniversary  in  August,  1907,  and  this  volume  was  prepared  for 
that  occasion.  It  contains  an  authentic  account  of  the  early  development 
of  the  Old  Rochester  territory,  with  special  chapters  on  Mattapoisett 
town,  church  and  ship  building  history;  also  detailed  lists  of  soldiers 
and  sailors,  assessors'  rates,  and  early  church  records  of  marriages  and 
baptisms.  424  +  xii  pp.  With  two  maps  and  thirty-two  illustrations. 
12    mo.,  cloth,  gilt-top,  $2.00  net.     (Postage,  16  cents.) 

THE    GRAFTON    PRESS 
70  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York  6  Beacon  St.,  Boston 


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